Disappointment

Scotty (11) has always been my happy kid. Almost never crabby, almost always willing to help. So, this morning when my "mister nice guy" started having a bit of attitude with me, "why do I always have to do it? I was just going to go play, now I have to do THIS! " I asked him what the problem was. "Well, I just keep getting disappointed!!! You keep changing everything I want to do! I was going to spend the night with cousins and you changed THAT, then we were going to go to the cousins' house this morning and you changed THAT, then I was going to finally go play my video game, and you took away the controler!" I felt for him. He had held in his disappointment for a while and just couldn't any longer. So, I began to joke with him, call him "my handsome son" and hug him as he walked by me. This seemed to make his mood worse. Then I got an idea. We don't keep a lot of candy in the house, sometimes a little around the holidays, but that is about it. But a neighbor kid had sold me some candy recently, and so I had a secret stash. Kids are always begging for candy and parents are always telling them "no." So, this afternoon, as we climbed into the car, I threw a Snickers to my crabby son. His face lit up! His whole mood improved. He ate it extrememly slowly, making a huge mess of his hands and face, and I did my best to only mention that once. But my point is that, that is all it took. One candy bar. Tonight I am going to relish in this stage. This stage where it only takes a candy bar to make all right with their world again. Some day I am going to have to be much more creative to solve their problems and bad moods. But for tonight, I want to thank God for creating the cocoa bean plant, peanut plant, and whatever nuget comes from. also I don't want to forget: -Charlie (2) was dancing tonight to music on the television, and his spinning, shaking and jiving were such entertainment. -As I watched Charlie dig into each family member's popcorn bag for leftovers, I was struck for some reason by how vulnerable children are. I think seeing his excitement at finding just one kernel leftover, and his disappointment at finding nothing in a bag, reminded me of how everything affects children. They are touched and molded by every little thing that goes on in their daily lives. good and bad. I want to make the good soooooo far outweigh the bad for them. I want to be mindful of how my moods affect them. They notice everything, even something as small as a popcorn kernel.