Was it genuine concern for others, or am I being too hopeful?

-
In order to keep the peace toward the end of our shopping trip to Meijer on Sunday, I asked Gladys for a few pennies so The Kid could ride Sandy the penny pony. Sandy is an iconic part of the regional chain's history, enduring longer than tag-lines like "Meijer Thrifty Acres" and concepts like Sagebrush or SourceClub.

(Sorry for the Meijer trivia, I was an employee during high school and college. Some memories are burned into my head, including some of the lyrics to Merry Meijer Christmas.)

Anyway, The Kid loves carousels, so I thought Sandy would be a welcome diversion. I was right. After her second ride, I had exhausted my collection of pennies. When she got down, she was busy inspecting the horse and asking me to name all the parts of the saddle. Then she noticed three pennies sitting on Sandy's base, and wanted me to put them in so she can ride again.

"Not today, baby. You've already had two rides, and those pennies are for kids whose Mama or Papa don't have have money to spend on the ride," I said.

"Okay," she replied as she put the penny she grabbed back with the others and began another thorough inspection of Sandy.

It is entirely possible that The Kid wasn't really interested in another ride, so she put the penny down. Knowing my daughter, that is not likely. I want to think that she is starting to learn empathy. She already understands the words for many emotions, and uses them in context. She knows when Mama or Papa is sad, and will give us hugs to try cheering us. When she thinks someone is upset, she will ask if they are okay.

Empathy is a tough concept, especially for someone who isn't quite three years-old yet. But a proud Papa can dream, right?


Popular posts from this blog

Marching for hope in our neighborhood

-
Image
The Kid and I walked our neighborhood this evening, but with a different purpose than usual. Many in our neighborhood gathered at Gesu Catholic Church to March for Hope . Roughly this time last year, a federal judge who lives a few streets over, was shot on his front porch in a botched robbery attempt. His physical recovery from the single bullet to the knee took the better part of a year and extensive rehabilitation, and his emotional recovery was sped by his church community and immediate neighbors. I don't know the judge, nor am I a member of his church Gesu Catholic. I'm not much of a protest guy either, I prefer to work behind the scenes. I read about the walk this morning , and almost forgot about it until Gladys started to do some work for a class she's taking. So we bundled up The Kid, and the two of us walked over to the church to support our neighborhood. When we walked into the church, I was struck immediately with the knowledge that this was not a protes
Read more

Yet another blog of parenting advice

-
Image
A friend whose wife is expecting their first child was asking me for advice today. He's going to be a new dad, so he was asking in general terms because until you're in it, you really don't know what to ask for. My knee-jerk reaction was to tell him to get rest. Lots of it, whenever you can from now until the kids are adults. Forget the idea of work/life balance too, because balance is a myth. Sometimes work will take priority, sometimes the kids will, and sometimes dad has to be a priority. If you're too concerned about hitting a false measure of balance, you're going to miss something. The End of the Beginning And that was it. That's all I could come up with until I got in the car and scarfed down one of the sugar cookies I bought for myself as a treat that I had no intention of sharing. Here's what I came up with. Avoid watching Caillou at all costs. For some reason, kids are absolutely mesmerized by him. No adult on that show holds the kid acc
Read more

But you're so young and athletic

-
Image
I fully expected to be writing a few humble brag posts on my social media channels by now of my athletic prowess, or at least tales of how I survived my first couple of organized classic cross country ski races. I’ve long thought about what it would be like to participate in the Noquemanon Ski Marathon , but living in a snow-desert like Detroit makes training tough. Since I’ve never done a race in my life on skis, I figured it would be a good idea to take on some shorter distances to see if this was something I would really enjoy doing. My training for the Krazy Klassic closer to home was fun. My walks with Barney were longer. So was my time on the yoga mat. When the race began, it was harder than I expected but I chalked that up to a lack of time on skis this year. Ultimately, I hit my goal, which was to finish the race. My 5k time was among the slowest that day , but I left the experience encouraged that my fitness was going in the right direction for the White Pine Stampede a few w
Read more