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Tuesday, November 06, 2007

A Balloon in the Sky

First of all, Blogger is on my black list again. In addition to taking hours to publish posts, none of the comments I got today went through even though copies of them were emailed to me. Urggh.

Today the boys and I went to a nearby grocery store that gives out balloons. My older son (OS) asked if he could get an extra one for his friend who was visiting later. When I had the audacity to ask OS if he would like me to hold the balloons in the parking lot, he insisted that he could do it. Fine. Except that the balloon he picked especially for his friend got loose and sailed off to parts unknown never to be seen again.

I tried to use this as one of those golden teaching opportunities. In an age where a lost toy can be replaced at pretty much any toy store (not to mention eBay), I thought I could explain to OS that sometimes you just can't replace things. OS listened patiently to most of my explanation, although he interrupted me a few times to ask preschooler questions like whether or not the balloon was going to sleep in the clouds tonight. I had one of those good parenting feelings.

I noticed later on that OS was not very interested in the contemplation of irreplacable things. In fact, he showed interest in two discussion topics: 1. The balloon sleeping in the clouds and 2. The fact that Mommy said a bad word yesterday when she tripped and fell over the toy parking garage that had been left in the hallway (despite numerous warnings on her part to move it.)

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Your teaching moments often do not align with your child's learning moments.

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 7:55 PM   4 comments
4 Comments:

  • At 11/07/2007 12:06 PM, Blogger Heather said…

    I often feel that my kids and I are having two different conversations.

    How sweet that he thought of his friend.

     

  • At 11/07/2007 1:00 PM, Anonymous skiplovey said…

    Oh that's funny. I guess you can lead a kid to a moral of the story but you can't make him pay attention or care. Nice try though!

     

  • At 11/07/2007 2:03 PM, Blogger Suzanne said…

    I always hated that short film, "The Red Balloon." Unfortunately, I had to sit through it every year in elementary school. Just saying.

     

  • At 11/07/2007 4:54 PM, Blogger Chantelle said…

    Well put lesson. I'm sure that what you are saying registers sometime later. At least that is the case when I talk to my husband.

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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