Watching my boys be boys!

I love watching the Gadsdens first crushes.  They are so disciplined in their lives and yet there is a carefreeness that they seem attracted to in the girls who are more often in trouble.  Perhaps it is the attention that their trouble creates for them or something else, maybe.

 I watched William's short stint of a crush with Rhema and that has fizzled and now it is Joshua and Kaylee.  There is something freeing that he seems to find in playing with her.  She has absolutely no consideration for rules, whatsoever.  She lives as though no person should or has the right to direct her steps.  She never sits or stands when the class is directed to and if there is a directive given to everyone, she is sure to go the other way. 

Thursday morning Joshua sat next to her, looked up in the air as he always does and said I am Joshua and then they proceeded to play together without another word said between them until breakfast.  They were dressing the paper dolls.  A game that few of the threes engage in.  It takes some observation and hand skill that isn't cared for by most of the children, but they found a common thread there and it was curious to me how two very opposite children could find commonality.

I am prejudicely suspect of only children by bias.  I hardly think them able to learn to really share, whereas children in a larger family have no choice but to share from their earliest moments of life.  I realize that my bias is wrong and baseless, but I haven't seen it really work out that only children don't take advantage of what is a rule of law for children in larger families.  All children are selfish, but it has long been my opinion that only children can only be understood by only children and multiples, the same.  The family dynamic draws out personality traits that are best kept to themselves, as I see it.  The concept of cherishing and mine alone is sometimes lost in a big family and needs to be learned and the concept of sharing and community like to the only child, in my opinion.

In any case, I was liking the personality sharing that was happening between Kaylee and Joshua.  He was feeling free in her freedom and she was learning disciplines she hasn't exercised before.  All over a couple of paper dolls!

Although we didn't celebrate Santa at Christmas, I can see how he could fit into the festivities

How Christmas might be a good assistant in child rearing?

I don't remember Christmas being held over our heads as children.   We watched the children specials and memorized the Santa Clause jingles in every form.  Somehow it doesn't seem to stick in my mind, a time that I said to myself, I won't do this or that naughty thing because Santa won't remember me.  We did believe in Santa and we did get good grades, but we also did naughty things at all times of the year, Christmas notwithstanding.

Since working in childcare, I have seen parents starting in September reminding and pulling out Santa as an impetus to progress and better behavior.  I didn't even think about that with my children.  I thought about truth and a lie.  

I thought if I tell that lie about Santa, they may not believe me about Jesus.  That was my only reason for not invoking his name.  We read his history, like Christopher Columbus and Miguel Cervantez and Horatio Nelson.  I forgot to tell them not to spill the beans to the believers in Santa cousins.  We felt sorry for the deceived children who couldn't find it in their hearts to try to behave for Galatians 6:1 sake.  God said it. There is forgiveness with Christ that He may be feared.  They didn't mean harm in sharing with cousins that Santa was a historic figure and that He wasn't actually coming down the chimney on Christmas.  They thought that truth was obvious.

Well there is something very sober about rearing children to try to be good for goodness sake and to expect good from God and ignoring the Santa motives.

Still, I feel I missed a great opportunity of investing in the imagination of my children in that season.  We have many special memories, but Santa was an aside.

I love what Santa represents in this time in my life.  I love the trout that we all know that children need multiple motives to behave and one of them is imaginary and special and all kind, unless you are naughty.   It draws out their own attempts at finding good and kind motives for younger people and maybe it could snowball into great imaginations of better and better motives to do good.  God should be enough, we know.  But, sometimes people need great imaginations of better people than the ones that they know to guide them to a good imagination of God.  That is what I have grown to believe about Santa.

"Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those that love Him."