I just had to share that I actually witnessed a moment of generosity from one son to another. I wish I could say that it happens frequently, but alas, we have many more moments of animosity than generosity. It's not for lack of working on it. Doesn't every parent have visions of their children being best friends and filled with love and camaraderie? Why then, do we end up with our own version of the Cain and Abel story?
We were actually reading that story this morning when the glimmer happened. It could have been what inspired the act, but it's very hard to tell because we had gotten extremely side tracked. Somehow Roy got in his head that he had enough money to pay off the Alabama sunglasses we ordered online (on mom-credit). When we actually calculated things, however, he was $5 short. Roy is still working on handling disappointment in an appropriate way. Who knows, maybe his reaction to disappointment is completely appropriate for a 9 year old. He's my first one so I have to get concerned when he freaks out.
Boy was he freaking out. I had to give myself an internal pep-talk....hold your ground, hold your ground, I kept repeating in my head. I'm not big on seeing my child miserable even when I know it's not a good idea to give in when they throw a tantrum. You non-parent people reading this can go ahead and judge all you want. It's easy for me to be the tough guy when it's someone else' kid, but I have a huge soft spot for my own. This morning I was successful and I'm so glad because that's when it happened.
Rex actually ran to his room and got $5 out of his money box and gave it to Roy so that he could pay off his debt. This sounds like a small thing. In our world, $5 is no big deal, but to a 6 year old, $5 is a really big deal. So when he so freely offered this to his brother I took notice. Roy did too--he jumped on top of him to give him a giant hug.
There was a part of me that wanted to talk Rex out of it so that Roy would learn a lesson, but I stopped myself because I think a better lesson is highlighting the act of being generous...so I went with it.
It's just a glimmer, I confess, but I have hope that they will grow in this.
No comments:
Post a Comment