Oh, the excitement! Oh, the feeling of being grown up!
While the rest of us here on the ranch are over the bubbling enthusiasm portrayed by the next generation when doing “mundane” chores… for the kids, it becomes a badge of honor. Take for instance, that chore of opening gates.
When was the last time you were ABSOLUTELY THRILLED to open or close a gate?
These three RAN to the gate! What joy it is, to open a gate! Around here, opening gates is easy… closing them takes a bit more oomph.
They have the proper technique… place in the bottom loop first.
Reagan watches out the window as I keep taking photos in my side mirror. Hmmm. This wasn’t quite working. I told Jaxon, as I have been told, hug it like it’s your girlfriend! He blushed.
Put your shoulder into it!
Finally strong enough, coordinated enough, and slightly embarrassed… the gate was closed. They laughed and giggled their way back to the car.
Did it take four times longer than it would if I’d done it? Yes.
Would there have been less squabbling it I’d done it? Yes.
But they figured out how to cooperate. They figured out one technique and when it failed they came up with another. And another. They understood they’d have to put down the wildflowers they’d picked in order to accomplish their task. Sometimes one job is more important than the other. They accomplished a task with nothing more than one witty bit of instruction from me.
Was this life changing? Not in itself, but building on these little jobs makes way for bigger jobs and more responsibility and more confidence. Learning frustration and setbacks are part of the picture, they can meet them head on and handle them next time when they appear.
Besides, it makes them laugh and giggle and smile, and why would you want to take that away from a child just because you will get somewhere five minutes faster?
Being present and involved with grandchildren is lovely. Then having the patience to teach them a skill, standing by while they practice it, is even better. Kudos.
Figuring something out…trying different ideas… teamwork…all valuable experiences for building stick-to-it-ive-ness, pride, and self-confidence. Plus it’s like an “adventure”.!! Well written story!
Five minutes well spent!
Great life lessons learnt here. And with the giggling all the more fun.
Valuable life lesson learned and they had fun doing it. Like you say, it made them laugh and giggle. How great is that!
The parents and you grandparents and Great grandparents are teaching our amazing future. A grateful THANK YOU>
Your words into the ears/minds of all parents! Good job, everybody. (P.S. I do like very much how you write!)