Monday, October 12, 2009
Picking up Stompies
We had two friends (a couple, let's call them Neo and Trinity) over the weekend for a mince curry over the fire. The curry tasted superb and no, I was not the cook. I made the fire (imagine me beating my fists against my chest and screaming out like Tarzan). Our friends brought along 2 of their 5 God children. The kids had tons of fun, from playing on the jungle gym, racing their bikes around the house, watching cartoons, playing with a variety of toys, playing in the sand pit and they even attempted to set up and play (unsuccessful though) the Nintendo Wii all by themselves. At some point in their visit, Neo mentioned to me that the older kids (ours and theirs) were attempting to play the Wii game all by themselves. He also pointed out that they were unsuccessful. I was busy pushing our youngest on the swing (a different left-field story on its own) at the time. BTW: My eldest plays both Mario Kart as well as Sim Racing quite well. I, however, usually start the console and ensure that the remotes are working before play time comences. On scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is really bad and 10 is excellent, I score Mario Kart an 8/10 and Sim Racing a 5/10.It never occurred to me to help the older children set up the game so that they could play. I only realized this earlier this evening, 2 days later. At the time, I remembered my eldest son saying that the game remotes were not working and that the batteries were probably flat. I'm not sure what triggered me to recall this specific experience of their visit. I was filled with a ton of guilt when the realization hit me, i.e. I wasn't paying attention when my boy needed my help. This may be something small to you and me as adults but to my son it was a disappointment probably followed by a little embarrasment (I know him like this, an introvert who has to muster up the courage to join a group of children who are strangers to him, i.e. he takes a little while longer to warm up to new people (big and small). While I may not be in position to protect him from every disappointment/injury in life I usually and instinctively protect him when I happen to be PRESENT.
Two take aways:
1. It's 'usually' never to late to apologise. It was, however, a little challenging to find the vocabulary to adequately explain why I was apologizing to him, a 3.5 year old boy.
2. Also, no need to overcompensate with sweets and toys, a mistake is just that, a mistake. The bribery thing can do a nasty thing to a child's habits later in life so use this card sparingly.
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