Kid Wisdom

My three-year-olds keep challenging me. I don't mean with unrelenting temper tantrums or incessant "why's". They challenge me philosophically. And I don't mean parenting philosophies. I mean life philosophies.

Yesterday Kaylee said, "I get a good feeling when there's something new." There was no context for her statement so I basically had no idea what she was talking about.

"Like excited?" I asked.

"No, more like brave," she said.

I was struck again that new situations require some level of courage for all of us and that courage or "brave" is a "good feeling". Three-year-olds actually know what they're talking about sometimes. It's worth listening.

Also I was beginning to think my idea about broken things becoming something new was backfiring on me. Kalyee and Emily got little plastic yo-yos in party bags from Mathias's one-year-old birthday yesterday. Kaylee had wanted a yo-yo like forever. As soon as she got it home and started playing with it, it hit the floor too hard, and split in two. Kalyee was devistated. We talked about it and I hugged her, but I didn't bring up my broken things becoming new theory. I couldn't really think how a broken plastic yo-yo could be anything but a broken plastic yo-yo. That just goes to prove my limited creativity and insight.

The next moring Kaylee got up and asked for her broken yo-yo parts. I gave them to her. She looked at them and declared that they were now extra hockey pucks for playing hockey.

"I want to break my yo-yo too!" Emily said. Now this was getting out of controle. I didn't want the girls to be randomly breaking toys!

"But, Emmy, if you break your yo-yo, you won't have your yo-yo anymore," I tried to explain.

"But if I don't break it, it can't become something new..."

I let her break her yo-yo.