Thought of the Day 07.29.09

My middle son, Ethan, has great interest in games, at least he has a great interest in game pieces, which he likes to spread around the room or, if given enough time, the entire house. Well, he recently decided that the best use of the four different colored boxes of Cadoo cards was to dump them all on the floor and mix them together. My own perspective on this way of playing the game was not so favorable.

So I told him he needed to clean up his mess before I would play anything else with him. This meant sorting the cards back into their separate colors, orienting them all the same way, and returning them to the boxes. Of course, I knew in advance that this task would be impossible for him. So I told him that I would help as long as he was working, too. In essence, this meant I would do it all, but at least he would have to sit there with me while I did it.

Then, one of those wonderful parenting moments happened. My other son, Spencer, offered to help Ethan. Spencer gave up some other activity so he could do for Ethan something he couldn’t do for himself but which his father was requiring of him. I wonder Who taught him that lesson?