Is Your Kid Better?

Anything you can do, I can do better.  I can do anything better than you.

-Lyrics from Annie Get Your Gun 

Annie Oakley.  Now that's a great story of a woman who overcame obstacles in her life.  If I could go back in time and meet someone from the late 1800's, it would be Annie Oakley hands down.  An amazing woman who had an extraordinary talent.  Annie Oakley has little to do with this post, I just thought you'd like to know another little quirk about me.  After all, you already know I sleepwalk.  I can't really disclose too many other embarrassing things. 

Moving on...

I didn't use the above lyric today to prove that I am better than you.  I screw up all the time.  Just ask Steven.  He'll give you a lengthy run down.  Instead, I want to share that sometimes we send this message to our kids.  Maybe not so much as 'we' do things better than 'them', but 'other kids' do things better than 'our kids'.  We focus on what other people's kids are doing that are kids aren't.  

This is all brought up by our weekly trip to the library.  Little Man was selected to do his 'Me Book' for next week.  I was really excited for him because he was excited.  Unfortunately, I started looking around at the other kids in the room.  It's hard not to size kids up academically when you were trained to do so as a teacher.  I noticed there were quite a few kids in the room who were able to do something Little Man has yet to perform on a satisfactory level.  Little Man is bright.  He's got a vocabulary that is pretty abundant for four.  Mathematically he is strong. But, he struggles in one area.  Little Man does not want to write his name, and has yet to do so completely.  He gets too frustrated if the letters aren't made perfectly (I have no idea where he gets this from ;)).  I've tried to encourage him, but to no avail.  We're at a bit of a standstill on handwriting.

When we're working on our daily lesson at home, I always urge him to put his name on it so when his daddy gets home he can see who did all the work.  He gets the first letter on the paper, but after that it's downhill.    That letter just doesn't turn out well enough for him to move on to the others.  Instead of frustrating him any further, we move on to something else.  I know he will eventually get it, but will he get it before his "Me Book" is due?

Then it hit me.  It doesn't matter if I write his name or he writes his name on the book.  The whole purpose of the book is for it to be about him, and 'him' just doesn't write his name at the moment.  No biggie.  I shouldn't be so concerned with what other kids are doing.  I should be concerned with what my kid is doing.  Little Man accomplishes things daily that make me so proud of him.  Why would I want to spend so much time on what he can't do instead of building on what he can do? 

God created him differently than other kids.  God created your child differently too.  He gave them special gifts that are unique to them.  So what Little Man isn't writing his name at 4?  He's got a whole lot of other areas we can be working on.  Areas where he's been uniquely gifted.  So next week, he's going to rock his 'Me Book' at the library, and I'm going to rock it too.  He's going to have the coolest looking name on the front page, and I'm going to proud of him (and me too-I've got some pretty awesome handwriting)!

So today I want to know what your kid has done to make you proud this week.  I don't care if your child is 25 and learned how to do his own laundry for the first time.  I just want you to be proud of your kid, and for me to be proud of mine.  I'm going to forget what Johnny Jr.'s doing, and focus on what mine is doing!