C is a normal little boy. I certainly love that about him. :-) And every once in a while, he gets in trouble at school and has to "pull a card." They have a system of green (good), yellow (warning), red (note home) and blue (sent to office). One week, particularly recently, he had 3 yellow cards in a 4 day week. I wasn't very pleased with this, and so Joshua and I sat down with him to discuss his consequence at home. We've talked in length with him about what his "job" is at school, and especially since I'm a teacher, what our expectations of his behavior are. Josh and I both understand that there is a whole mess of little boy in him that is dying to get out sometimes, so we talk about each instance as it happens.
Well, this particular week was just crazy. So, we told him that we felt like he would lose his new DS for the weekend. He was of course devastated about this, so I asked him what he would have done if he were us.
"Well, I would take it away for....4 weeks."
Josh and I both looked at each other and laughed - apparently he wasn't catching on to the fact that 2 days was WAY better than 4 weeks. :-)
Later that night, to get to the point, we went to a friend's house to play Risk. They have two little boys that C adores playing with, so it was a family night. When we got there the kids ran to the basement to play and we set up our festivities at the dining room table.
About an hour into the evening, C came upstairs and asked if he could talk to me. He came around the table and started whispering into my ear. It seemed that his friend had a DS in the basement, and he wanted to play it. I mean, technically, this wasn't HIS DS, so it didn't really fall under the category of his consequence. ;-) I am pretty sure when C came up the stairs, though, he knew what the answer was going to be. Yep, no matter how cute you are, the answer is still "no." Though it wasn't the answer he wanted, C smiled, hugged my neck, and skipped back downstairs.
I didn't think much about it at the time, but later that night, I was struck at what an honest heart my little guy has. He could've played that DS in the basement all night long, and I would never have been the wiser. But he chose to respect Joshua and I...and God...in the process. I don't know if it was something we did as parents, or his natural sensitivity to spiritual things...but I am SO honored to be his mama...
*love*
Well, this particular week was just crazy. So, we told him that we felt like he would lose his new DS for the weekend. He was of course devastated about this, so I asked him what he would have done if he were us.
"Well, I would take it away for....4 weeks."
Josh and I both looked at each other and laughed - apparently he wasn't catching on to the fact that 2 days was WAY better than 4 weeks. :-)
Later that night, to get to the point, we went to a friend's house to play Risk. They have two little boys that C adores playing with, so it was a family night. When we got there the kids ran to the basement to play and we set up our festivities at the dining room table.
About an hour into the evening, C came upstairs and asked if he could talk to me. He came around the table and started whispering into my ear. It seemed that his friend had a DS in the basement, and he wanted to play it. I mean, technically, this wasn't HIS DS, so it didn't really fall under the category of his consequence. ;-) I am pretty sure when C came up the stairs, though, he knew what the answer was going to be. Yep, no matter how cute you are, the answer is still "no." Though it wasn't the answer he wanted, C smiled, hugged my neck, and skipped back downstairs.
I didn't think much about it at the time, but later that night, I was struck at what an honest heart my little guy has. He could've played that DS in the basement all night long, and I would never have been the wiser. But he chose to respect Joshua and I...and God...in the process. I don't know if it was something we did as parents, or his natural sensitivity to spiritual things...but I am SO honored to be his mama...
*love*
