Saturday, December 24, 2005

Children

My life has been enriched the past few days by "the zubbies," my two nieces aged three and two. Their father is responsible for the vast majority of the many crazy nicknames in our family, and he has made no exception with his own progeny. For the present purpose, I will call them Digaloo the Elder and Digaloo the Younger.

When the Elder found my wallet, she showed it to me and murmured something about "mommy's."
"Oh, is my wallet like Mommy's?"
"No. [pause] It has money in it."
This was an anomaly.

One of the primary joys in the Elder's life is to boss the Younger around. Thus, the best way to extract obedience from the Elder is to get her in league with the Younger. That way, any denial of wishes is translated into a lecture to the younger.
"Mom, can we watch a movie?"
"No, you need to wait until after dinner."
"No, Sissy, mommy says you can't watch a movie."

"Whose rocking horse is that? Is it yours?"
"No."
"Whose is it?"
"Mommy's."

Watching their parents' long, slow, and rewarding disciplinary process has been educational for me in several respects.

  • Parenting is tremendously difficult and entirely possible. Just add prayer.
  • Usually minds of a lower order understand the higher ones to a greater level than they would like to admit. It is the conflict between wills that really causes the problems. Perhaps many who would say God is unknowable simply don't want to hear it.
  • Love cannot be explained. The glow I feel when the Digaloos are around is nothing compared to what Mommy and Daddy feel, and it isn't because of any of their personal characteristics. It is because they are ours. And why the heck would God so love the world?

posted by Lynn @ 5:45 AM

1 Comments:

At Sat Dec 24, 02:30:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You certainly are the early riser these days.

Will these Digaloos find themselves in history books among the Plinys?

And, I've seen the same thing. Parenting--as an experience, not -hood, which is a matriarchal institution meant to enslave men--looks satisfying, but awfully hard. My cousin has three children, and she and her husband don't seem to be able to visit for extended periods of time while we're at family get-togethers because one of the children is always in need of reproof, warning, manhandling, diaper-changing, or something. But, they're all really cool little people.

 

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