Apologies to Lenore Skenazy for the title. The best way for kids to have good self-esteem is to earn it. How do they earn it if their parents don’t let them do things on their own? Give kids the independence to try things. If they grow up expecting their parents to always help them out and protect them from everything, then they will end up being adults who will expect the government to bail them out of any financial problems they get themselves into. We wouldn’t want that now, would we?
“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;”
– Romans 5:3-4
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A couple of weeks ago, we went to a local orchard to pick raspberries and apples. There is not much in food-land that is better than fresh raspberries. Good fresh blueberries may come close, but raspberries are the winner.
Afterward, while my wife was paying for things at the orchard store, I took the kids to the playground. They went first to a kid-sized wooden train – the type that they can climb in and play on but it doesn’t go anywhere. I thought it looked like a good place for pictures, so I asked the kids to look at me and smile. The oldest child was not cooperating – he was holding his hand and making an unhappy face. So I asked him what was wrong and he said “Owie” (or is that spelled “owee”?). That’s all he would say, repeatedly.
I noticed things flying around him, so I told both of them to get out of the train and come over by me. The hurt child asked me what they were, so I looked and said they were wasps. At that point, he realized that he had been stung by a wasp and he started crying in earnest. So picture time was over as soon as it had started, kind of like the season for the (insert name of losing team here).
My wife had bought cider and doughnuts at the orchard store, so when we walked over to her, each child had a cup of cider and a doughnut waiting for him. That helped calm everyone down. She asked why all the fuss, so I explained what happened, and she went back into the store to get some ice.
While she was in there, she told the workers what had happened. Not long after she brought the ice back, we saw one worker drive by in a Gator-type vehicle, carrying a can of Raid. Then another worker walked by, carrying a can of wasp spray. There were a few people doing nothing but taking care of wasps, it looked like. So that seemed like good customer service response at least.
“Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, {and} fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.”
– Genesis 1:11
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The same co-worker who appeared in Tuesday’s post also mentioned something else, completely unrelated and on another day.
Did you know there are glow-in-the-dark tattoos? And blacklight (UV) tattoos? I had no idea until my co-worker said that a friend of his had a glow-in-the-dark tattoo. I forget what subject we were discussing and how we got onto tattoos. It’s a skull, I think, made of regular ink but the eyes are filled with the glowing ink. So they appear empty during the day or in lit rooms, but they glow when it’s, umm, dark.
I was going to link to some websites, but most places that show examples of tattoos are not completely family-friendly. So I’ll let the curious reader find those sites himself. But I will say that one of the more interesting examples of a blacklight tattoo was someone who had bones (i.e. skeleton) drawn along his arm and hand and fingers, with the correct bones at the appropriate places. During the day, no one would really notice his arms. But when he would go under a blacklight (say for laser tag), then his arms would appear like an X-ray.
I didn’t see one of these, but I’m thinking the Cheshire Cat would be a good candidate for one of these inks. It seems that the blacklilght ink is fine, but glow-in-the-dark inks can be radioactive and are not recommended. There are ways other than tattoos to have your hands glow.
“So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.”
– Exodus 34:30
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I mentioned to a co-worker that I was leaving work to go pick up my child from school. I also mentioned that they card you now, when you pick up a child from school. You have to show photo ID and the name on the ID must match a name that has already been provided to the school as an approved picker-upper.
He said that was much improved from his days in school and it’s a lot safer, not having just anyone be able to come in and take a child. I reminded him of the statistics though, that most abductions are by someone who is known to the child, not by strangers.
His response was that to improve child safety, schools should release children only to people they don’t know. Statistically, that would be safer.
I had no response, other than to tacitly agree. That’s the problem with statistics.
“A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
– John 10:5
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Here are some random events from the past couple months of our lives:
Our younger child woke up early, about an hour before anybody else wanted to be awake. I told him “Hey, you’re supposed to be asleep.”
His response: “But I’m not!”
“Is the sun setting?” my younger asked at 7:00 P.M.
“No,” I replied, “the sun sets in two hours.”
Ten seconds later: “Is it two hours yet?”
“No, because the sun isn’t setting.”
I brought glasses of chocolate milk to dinner, at the request of both children. The younger one looked at the glass of milk and exclaimed “It’s beautiful!”
The kids were not behaving well with their drinks at lunch. From the other room, I heard my wife say “No! You don’t put that in your glass. Only straws can go in your glasses.” And the older child added “and ice cubes too“.
One of our children was using the bathroom. When he came out, I asked him if he flushed the potty and washed his hands. He said he’d be right back. I heard water running and then, when he came back, he said as he reached for me with not-quite-dry hands “Don’t smell my hands” before I had a chance to ask him anything. So I, being the insightful parent that I am, immediately smelled his hands and told him to go back and wash with soap. This next time when he came back, he told me to smell his hands. And this time they smelled like soap.
“and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
– John 8:32
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I have updated the Football Happiness Calculator. Now you can track NFL teams as well as college Division 1-A teams.
Also, due to popular demand, I have increased the number of college teams that you can track. I left the pro football at 5 each, since there are only 32 teams. But since college has over 100, I bumped them up to 10.
“So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
– Matthew 7:20
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I was at work, thinking that my mood on Monday mornings varies by how certain football games went. Especially if Ohio State had a bad week – that makes it easier to face the OSU fan at work. The way Michigan has been playing (not competing, just playing) lately also makes it hard to face anyone who is not a Michigan fan.
Being an engineer, I thought there must be some way to quantify this effect. So I made up a way to quantify it and the result is at the Happiness Calculator page.
“Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.”
– Ecclesiastes 7:3
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This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
