Valuable Little Things Kids Can Teach Us

By Sandy Schroeder

I always said my kids taught me a lot more than I taught them. When they are infants and you are freaking out over all of the things that you do not know, parenthood can loom large and be pretty stressful.

Later as you look back, when things settle down a little and parenthood is less stressful,  you may find you can actually learn a lot from your kids if you watch them.  Here are some of the things that I have seen them teach.

Keen observation of little details - Perhaps it is because they are so much closer to the ground, but I was always amazed at how much my kids noticed and remembered, even when they were very young. One Christmas when my youngest was about 4, his grandmother broke her glasses when she was playing with him. The next Christmas when she came to visit, he promptly asked her if she brought an extra pair of glasses so they could play.

Thoughtfulness - My youngest adored his grandfather and they had many man-to-man talks as they played countless games, but sometimes my dad would run out of energy and doze off on the couch. My son, who usually tended to be impatient, would always tell me to be quiet and very seriously say, "He's tired right now."

Sense of humor - When you have three boys in a busy household, things do not always go smoothly. Sometimes when a true disaster would occur and everybody needed to pitch in to clean up before guests arrived, things would disintegrate with everybody pointing fingers --  until my middle son would stand up and whistle loudly. When he had everybody's attention he would make some hilarious statement, and we would all giggle as we pulled together to get the job done.

Kindness - We always had a houseful of pets with a dog, two cats, and assorted small creatures such as fish, or lab rats. Often disagreements broke out over treats, toys and games, but there was always total agreement and follow-through when it came to their pets. They would remind me to buy pet food and take the time to fill their water bowls.

Whenever you have doubts about how effective your parenting is, look a little closer and you will probably see some pretty great things happening that often work out to be lessons for us all.

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