THE WORDS OF A CHILD

Children often make the most powerful points. I was reminded of this last night by Nicholas. Kathleen was out with some of her friends, which meant that I had daddy daycare duty. I love my kids, but I often find it challenging to take care of both of them by myself.

Last night went well until story time when Nicholas and Cate began fooling around and ignoring the stories. I asked them several times to stop and to pay attention, but they did not listen. I raised my voice and told them that it was time to brush their teeth and go straight to bed. Both begrudgingly trotted over and did as they were told, but Nicholas was upset.

Between sobs, he looked me in the eye and said, "I wish we could just be silly sometimes. Why do we have to be angry?"

I am rarely at a loss for words, but this statement really floored me, particularly coming from my own son who is just five. We expect a lot of the kids, and it is sometimes easy to forget that Nicholas and Cate are, well, children, who make mistakes and who do not always share our same attention span or motivations. Tonight was a wake-up call.

I apologized to Nicholas and said he could pick out another story. We all cuddled up and read a book about dinosaurs- deinonychus to be specific. In this story, the daddy and mommy deinonychus fight off predators, protect their young, and live to see another day despite a great forest fire.



This book and Nicholas' words were a reminder of how easy my life is and all the things for which I should be thankful but which I commonly take for granted.

I promised to do something silly with Nicholas today, and I hope to do something silly with him everyday. If I can just remember his words each day, I will be on my way to becoming a better dad, husband, doctor, and human being.

The words of a child (no italics).