Slushes

The kids and I have gotten Sonic slushes several times this summer. I'm hooked on the Cherry Lime slush. Jane favors lemon-berry, while Luke and Lucy like the fake grape and watermelon flavors. I'm pretty sure that each kid at different times has used the straw to break up the slush for better drinkability, only to end up poking the straw straight through the styrofoam cup. Why do they all have to do it? Don't they learn from watching their sibling cry and moan over having their dribbling cup snatched away by mom and hurried to the nearest trash receptacle? If they can't learn from each others' experiences, does that mean I will have to teach them each separately all of the same things? Will I have to explain to Lucy and then to Luke, just as I have to Jane about sharing and hitting, about why we don't pray to Santa, why we're not democrats, how the toilet works, electricity, fireworks, thunderstorms? One day I became overwhelmed, thinking about all the things I want to teach them. Isn't it my job to make sure they know everything I know? I started making lists in my head of skills I should pass on like crocheting, photography, sewing, writing, singing...

Then I stopped worrying. I thought about all those things and realized that those are not things I learned from my mother. I picked up most of those things from books or by practicing, just because they were things I wanted to be good at. My mother did teach me how to cook, how to french braid hair, and probably all of the homemaking skills that I have. She also taught me to invite the weird, smelly girl to my birthday party because how would I feel if I was the one who got left out? Then when I was the one who got left out, she taught me that girls can be mean and that the fact that I was the target of their treachery didn't necessarily mean anything was wrong with me. She taught me about Jesus Christ, and about prayer and recognizing the answers when they came. She taught me about faith and obedience, integrity, forgiveness... Now that, I can teach. Those are things that I still work on every day, so it's easy to teach my children as I go along. As long as I teach them how to be good human beings, whatever skills and talents they pick up on their own are just bonus features. And if they end up poking a few holes in styrofoam cups, I guess they'll learn about that on their own too.