Sharing

We discussed parenting at church this morning, both in Sunday School and Relief Society. What a joy that was you might only imagine. Go ahead, take a moment. Among the other fun fun parenting thoughts shared by my (ancient curmudgeonly) classmates was the thought that parents shouldn't outsource the teaching of their children to schools and churches. 'Cause that's what we young whipper-snappers are guilty of in these days of spending more and more time with our children and less and less on housekeeping.

You know what though, I am happy to outsource some teaching to the church. There are some lessons that are more easily taught in that social setting. Case in point, we've had a hard time teaching Paul not to grab toys away from other kids because at home every time we try to tell him it's not okay to grab toys without asking Sylvia tells him it's okay and hands over the toy. While it's great that Sylvia is so good at sharing, it's made it hard to teach Paul to respect the right of others to hold on to things.

Today at church he might have gotten it. Apparently in nursery he grabbed toys away from other kids a couple of times and at least once was instructed to return the toy and apologize.

The lesson seems to have stuck.

After lunch Paul earned a time-out somehow and I took away his new flash light before starting his time since he's not supposed to have toys on time-out. When he got off he (rather sternly) instructed me to apologize for taking away his toy. You know, as if I were some grabby toddler.

Score one for nursery teachers.