Simple Troubles

I've gone back to a simple blog design and no Song of the Day for a while.  That's because I'm printing out some of my blog entries to save for the day when my kids are grown up and blogs are a laughable, historical way of telling our stories.  They won't be reading them online because that is "so last decade!"  Keeping the design simple makes the printing faster and uses less expensive inkjet cartridge ink, so for now it's back to nature on this girl's blog, sort of.

Yesterday Jeremiah got into trouble at his after-school program for drawing something that the supervisor said was inappropriate.  It looked like an upside down nipple from an old baby bottle with 3 drops coming out of it and the single word "drip"  written below it.  I had trouble understanding why that was a big deal, but I gathered it was the conversations around it with other kids that was more of a problem.  It reminded me of his kindergarten days.  When he got in trouble with the student teacher one day for speaking out of turn, step one was a verbal warning.  He continued, which meant he had to go and write his name on the board.  He took the chalk and wrote Jeremiah Hell.  Well, the third offense meant a note from the teacher.  The poor student teacher wrote me a vague note that left out the details.  I wrote her back and said I needed more information to help him out at my end.  So she wrote back a very long detailed explanation of the whole process, which I made the mistake of reading to myself in front of Jeremiah.  I tried very very hard not to laugh.  And failed. 

I asked him if it was worth it, getting in trouble to get the kids in his class to laugh.  He said no, because no one laughed.  They couldn't read what he had written.

Jeremiah and I have talked about the problem yesterday and to be honest, I'm not completely satisfied with his answers yet.  But teaching your kids right from wrong gets more complicated as they age, I'm finding.  His defense, "other kids were doing it first and they didn't get into trouble" seemed like a pretty normal 9-year old answer, but a scary one, too.  Teen years looming and other kids doing...argh!  Perish the thought!

Last night before bed the kids wanted to play some music and dance around the living room.  So we did.  I watched them, having grown out of their natural little kid rhythms into long-limbed bigger kid awkwardness.  I miss the past, think of their future with a combination of joy and dread, and try to remember to enjoy today's simple pleasures.