David, my next-door neighbor, has two young kids ages
five and seven. One day he was teaching his seven-year-old
son Kelly how to push the gas-powered lawn mower around the
yard. As he was teaching him how to turn the mower around at
the end of the lawn, his wife, Jan, called to him to ask a
question. As David turned to answer the question, Kelly
pushed the lawn mower right through the flower bed at the
edge of the lawn - leaving a two-foot wide path levelled to
the ground!
When David turned back around and saw what had
happened, he began to lose control. David had put a lot of
time and effort into making those flower beds the envy of
the neighborhood. As he began to raise his voice to his son,
Jan walked quickly over to him, put her hand on his shoulder
and said, "David, please remember, we're raising children,
not flowers!"
Jan reminded me how important it is as a parent to
remember our priorities. Kids and their self-esteem are more
important than any physical object they might break or
destroy. The window pane shattered by a baseball, a lamp
knocked over by a careless child, or a plate dropped in the
kitchen are already broken. The flowers are already dead. I
must remember not to add to the destruction by breaking a
child's spirit and deadening his sense of liveliness.
