Our Children Really Do Listen

I've been teaching my four (almost 5) year old about helping people in need over the past several months. Sometimes she learns by a quiet sit-down conversation with me where we talk about those who can't afford food or clothes or a home to live in. Sometimes she learns by me screeching at her when she turns her nose up at the lovingly prepared, organic, and delicious meal I've made for her. I never thought I'd actually hear these words come out of my mouth, "You WILL eat your food because there are starving children who don't have any food. They would be grateful just to eat our garbage and here you are not even wanting to put your food in your mouth and try it!?!" Instead of those words having the impact on Hailey that I was hoping for, she just exploded into giggles and said, "Mom, people don't eat garbage. That's just silly." So, then we go back to the sit down discussion about how there are people who really do eat garbage and it's not funny. Sigh.

What brought this subject up this morning though was actually really cute. Hailey has been potty trained for two years, but not so much at night still. So, she wears pull-ups. She has really been wanting to try not to wear them at night and see if she can stay dry until morning. We tried this several times, but I was having to change her sheets in the middle of the night several nights in a row. Because I am a person who turns into a monster when woken up out of a dead sleep to, "Moooooommmmm, my bed is all wet again! Can you come change my sheets?", I decided to try compromising with her. She gets to wear her underwear, but she has to wear a pull up over them until she can keep them both dry for seven nights in a row. Then, she can try again with just underwear. So, last night was the fourth dry night. She came running up to me this morning and shouted with glee, "Look Mommy, my undies are dry AGAIN! Look, I'll show you!" Then she proceeded to pull them down and show me, as I was opening my mouth to say, "It's alright, I believe you." But, I've learned that my daughter is very big on proving things to me with evidence. So, ok fine.

Anyway, I clapped and cheered and said, "Great job sweetie, only three more nights and we can try again without the pull-up!" She said, "Yeah, and then we can give my pull-ups to all the kids that are living in the dirt! Oh, and maybe a little bit of food too." I said of course we could do that. It caught me so off guard, as my children often do. I was so happy that the first thing she thought of was giving her pull-ups to children who lived in the dirt. Where she got the "dirt" part, I don't really know. But, I was very proud of her. See, what we think our children are not listening to, they really are listening to. My children have very compassionate hearts and I am so glad. Guess I'm doing a good job after all. : )