The other day at dinner, Charlie (7) was getting jealous of all of the wonderful things that Teddy (3) had gotten to do that day with me. He was bummed because he'd had to be at school and couldn't, for instance, go to the grocery store. Teddy loves our grocery store because it has cookie cards - buy the card for a dollar for charity at the beginning of the year and present it at the bakery and kids get a free cookie each visit.With that context, this was Teddy's prayer during family devotions after dinner:
"Thank you that I could ride in the race car cart and get provolone cheese and have a cookie...and Charlie didn't...Ha ha!"
Ah, humanity after the Fall. I laughed!
ReplyDeleteSooo, what did you do/say then?
ReplyDeleteOh, that was one of those stifle the laughter during the prayer moments. One of the great sacrifices of parenting is not busing out laughing when discipline is required, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYour boy prays like a Presbyterian...
ReplyDeleteSo on the parenting level, you just didn't respond?
ReplyDeleteI ask because one of the things I struggle with as a parent is the idea that maybe I don't *have* to respond to every little thing, one way or another.
Of course with two, responding to everything is probably not even an option anyway.
On another note, that's a pretty generous cookie deal from the store. Seems like they must lose money on that. Or maybe they save yesterday's/last week's cookies to be the freebies? (Am I being too cynical?)
ReplyDeleteK, yeah, we didn't really respond. And we do try to respond to our kids, but we sometimes tell them that questions are over or that we're done looking at the things they want us to look at because we're busy (had to say that during dinner tonight, in fact, while Teddy thumbed through the Boden catalog picking out clothes for our family). Anyway, I don't think we'd have been able to explain to a three-year-old that taunting one's sibling is improper during prayer. Maybe, actually, we wouldn't have to explain. As Anne said, "humanity after the fall". He knew he was getting under his brother's skin.
ReplyDeleteThe store probably does serve yesterday's cookies but probably wouldn't lose money even if they served fresh; I have a very faithful customer of their store in my household, and he gets vocal when I shop elsewhere. By saying that, of course, I'm not abdicating parenting around whether he gets a cookie every time we shop. It's nice to give my kids a treat, and it makes for a happier shopping experience for all.
"Anyway, I don't think we'd have been able to explain to a three-year-old that taunting one's sibling is improper during prayer. Maybe, actually, we wouldn't have to explain. As Anne said, "humanity after the fall". He knew he was getting under his brother's skin."
ReplyDeleteExactly! I need to work up a battle-choosing algorithm.