What do I know about raising kids, anyway?

Nuttin', really!

But I think that I know a little something about it from a kids' point of view.

I know what it feels like to be supremely embarrassed by the 'telling of stories' when my mother often shared and compared with her friends my most recent antics and mishaps. The burning feeling that started in my feet and raced to the tips of my ears when I'd overhear her explain, in every little detail, how I screwed something up, or tried to lie my way out of trouble with some lame little story or excuse that no half-wit would ever believe. To my logic, this was a woman who could not be trusted with intimate details and secrets of my heart. What? Confide in her, only to be outside playing below the open kitchen window, and then hear her calmly tell her friends that she found a poopy pair of my brand new lacy panties between my mattress and box springs when I had diarrhea and chanced the tiniest of farts and lost again to lady luck, NEVER!! She just added insult to my injury, how could she reasonably expect me to tell her about my first period, my first kiss, my first . . . . . . never mind, you get the picture.

I really think my mother was supposed to have a larger family. At least two or three of us, because it really hurt my case when she would ask something like, "Who ate all my baking chocolate?" And of course, thinking I should have had siblings, I would have to say, "I didn't know." I was quite grown when it dawned on me that, being an only child, this was never a good answer. But if she knew the answer, why then would she deviously set me up to have to lie about it? A simple statement like, "I know you ate all my baking chocolate, so now you'll just have to imagine how delicious the brownies I was going to bake with it would have tasted with a nice cold glass of milk. And since you've eaten so much dark chocolate, you'll probably get a bad case of diarrhea!" Now that would have stung more than the spanking I got for the lie. I would have learned to consider the consequences of my actions, instead of consequences from my lies. So, when I might have learned, sooner, how to make my own brownies, I focused on becoming a better more creative liar, and desperately tried to find ways to blame others when I got into trouble.

All kidding aside, I think that when some adults interact with a child, it's instinctive to imagine that the child is inferior or less than a regular person because they are small and not very wise, so the usual respect that is saved for those occasions when one communicates with another 'regular' person is forsaken. When a child is treated with respect and and the expectation of equality, I think they are very happy and willing to 'step up' to that and enjoy being given the opportunity to be a 'regular' person. By all means, kids should be allowed to be kids for as long as they are kids, however, when it is time for them to do so, it will be easier to put aside childish things, if they know how it is to be treated with respect and treat others as they would like to be treated.

Wistfully,

~Whurlie