Maturing Thoughts of a 9-Year-Old

Over the course of the past week, Matthew has made two fairly-striking (from my perspective) observations that I wanted to make note of:

1.  After the kids had dinner out with their Grandpa and Grandma last week, Matthew came home and commented that he'd gotten a little tired of Seth's and Lizzie's bickering "all the time."

I asked him how he'd managed when he was getting frustrated.  He said, "well, I thought about it and at first I wanted to jump in and yell at them to be quiet; either that or participate in the argument."

Me:  "I can understand that...although it sounds like you had a second thought then."

Matthew:  "Yeah.  I realized all of the sudden that if you stay out of the fighting, you actually might get your way more often.  'Cause when Seth and Lizzie were arguing about who got to do something first, Grandpa actually asked me to do it first.  And then I thought that even if I didn't get my way, you don't get yourself into any trouble if you just stay out of the fighting."

Huh...I can certainly live with that observation...and I'd have to say there have been a couple of occasions since that evening when he's deliberately chosen to stay out of the fray.  Awesome!


2.  Just yesterday, sitting at a red light while the kids and I were running a few errands, Matthew commented on how glad he was that I was feeling better (referencing my sickness of Monday).  I thanked him and asked why he was glad about that.

His response:  "Well, you know how I was in charge of Seth and Lizzie while you were sick and I had to feed them and stuff?"

Me:  "Yup."

Matthew:  "Well, I realized I'm not ready to be a parent.  It's hard enough being a brother.  And being a parent for the day and having to get meals ready and make sure they got their peanut butter and ate enough apples and stuff...I'm just not ready for all of that yet.  It's hard enough living the life I have without adding another job.  Being a parent must be tough 'cause I only had to do it for a day."

Ahh...me thinks I should get sick a little more often...this kind of appreciation is about as good as it gets!