Today, while at the store, I bought some carrot and Chivge seeds to plant in one or two of the planters Kimmie has. I phoned Gramma to ask if i needed anything special to plant them in (soil and such) and she said just a bag of regular potting soil, or just plain old dirt would do the trick. So, I'm hoping, since I don't know all that much about it, to plant those and some radishes and lettuce seeds over the next weekend with Darius. It'll be nice to give him a job to do outside.
Darius made me proud today, though I usually take it for granted, when we were eating our dinner, Spiderman was on the tv and he wanted to watch it instead of a movie in his room. He hopped off the couch and said, I'll be right back mom, I'm going to go turn off my tv so I don't waste electricity! He's said that a bunch of times, but it never really impacted me like it did tonight. i dunno why. I'm trying so hard to bring up a young man who's aware of his surroundings, and I can truly see how positive he's becoming. He turns off his light and tv automatically when he's leaving his room to do something else, and he knows what goes into the recycling bin and where all the empties go. This, it seems, was automatic to me too cause that's all I remember doing growing up. Why, then, does it seem such a hardship for people who don't automatically do it?
It's hard sometimes, to explain things to Darius. We'll be at McDonald's, and someone let's their kids climb all over the outside of the structure, when the rules say not to. When i ask Darius not to do it, he asks why the other kids can and he can't. Or sometimes he'll ask why some people are short, or why some people are tall (within earshot), or why some kids are allowed to do dangerous things (like climb slides, stand on swings) and he's not. I guess it all breaks down to parenting, and I end up saying some parents let their kids do those things, and some parents don't.
He asked me today why we always do "Safety First!". I asked him if he liked getting boo boos (he's gotten a couple of scrapes last few days), and he said no. Safety first is to prevent you from getting boo boos, so you don't get hurt. That seemed enough for the time being.
Sometime's I feel so overwhelmed with sadness at the way people treat their kids, and I truly have to wonder if what I see of people is really just a snapshot, or if it's prolonged. I know I'm not always the best parent, and that sometimes people don't see the best of me somedays, but do they think the same way I do?
I've found such joy in my kids over the last few weeks. I enjoy them so much everyday I discover something new about them. Everyday I giggle with them, and spend time with them, and teach them something new, seperate and together. This is how parenting is supposed to be.
Why, then, was it so difficult before?