A Hard Lesson

Dinner is in the oven; children are quietly playing and the chickens are put away for the night.

Today’s lesson was a hard one learned by my son. His sister received a gift card for her birthday and we went after school to Target to spend it. Since it was her gift card, I said she could spend it on anything she wanted. Well first my son wanted to go home “because he had a “headache”. I didn’t buy that; I just think he didn’t want to go shopping because, like all boys that I know, he hates shopping. Unless it is for a video game, then you can’t drag him out of the store.

So we proceeded to Target and on the way there he kept asking his sister if she would buy him an Icee. Well she said no, which is what I figured. My son go really upset, telling her that he bought her an Icee with his own money and that he is really thirsty, etc. She held firm and said no. She stated that he could wait until he gets home and drink water. He was beside himself and asked me to intervene, I said it was her money and she was able to do with it what she wants. I wasn’t going to make her buy him anything, only if she wanted to.

Well he was upset and on the way out of Target, he kept calling her names (not bad names; that I won’t tolerate). Nonetheless, I told him to stop. He kept stating he was mad at her and didn’t like her and that he bought her an Icee, etc. I told him that this was a hard lesson to learn. Some people don’t like to share and just because you do something nice for someone, it doesn’t mean they will do the same, even if they are your sister. And that if the only reason to do something nice for someone is to have them reciprocate, then that is not a selfless reason. I also stated that his sister hasn’t learned the art of sharing yet, but she will.

I know that didn’t make him feel better, but I am hoping that the lesson he learned is that the art of giving is a wonderful feeling and you should give without any strings attached. Or maybe he learned to never give anything to his sister.