I wonder if every parent feels like I do on this topic.
If only my children would listen to me and their mother, we could help them avoid so many mistakes and problems. But, no, that’s not how it works evidently, especially with Beckett.
At 9 years old, he is a stubborn child and is an expert on all things. His new favorite saying is, “I know.” He says it to everything. It’s appropriate because he seems to think he knows it all at a young age. It’s a shame because if he would listen to our advice on certain things he would be able to avoid a lot of anguish.
For example, he got himself all worked up last week during soccer practice over his coach making the players go “shirts vs. skins” in a scrimmage. He took umbrage with having to take his shirt off and was embarrassed for some reason.
What’s interesting here is this is the same kid who oftentimes takes his shirt off as soon as he walks in the house. He stays that until he has to leave. He’s also the guy who never wants to wear a rash guard at the beach because he thinks they are for babies.
This proclivity for being shirtless was in stark contrast to his dislike for not wearing a shirt during part of practice. When we tried to explain to him, this will be a part of sports for the rest of your life, he responded that he doesn’t want to play any ever again then.
We have grown accustomed to these sorts of extreme reactions and barely give them any thought because he doesn’t mean it. As we again tried to persuade him to chill out and listen to us, he just kept saying, “I know” to everything we said. After a few minutes of that, my patience wore thin and I had to walk away. Pam continued the conversation with mixed results.
Another example came this week when we got back from Carson’s appointment for an MRI. Since it was a two-hour procedure and he couldn’t move at all, he had to be put to sleep. It’s something he has struggled with as far as recovering quickly in the past so we were relieved when we got home and all went fine.
We told Beckett about our day and explained how brave Carson was and how super he did. He was interested in what we were saying for a few minutes but then ultimately returned to his “I know” comments.
“How could you possibly know about anesthesia and how it works?,” I asked him, realizing at this point he had stopped listening for the most part. By habit he was just saying, “I know.”
He replied, “well, in this case, I know means I understand what you are saying to me.”
I turned to him and said, “one thing I know is that you are not listening to me.”
He replied, “I know.”
The latest chapter in Carson’s ongoing sleep struggle diary warms the heart.
On Saturday morning about 2:35, Pam found Carson standing at her side of the bed with her birthday present from him in tow. He was so excited he couldn’t wait until her actual birthday on Sunday.
Fortunately, Pam was able to talk him into waiting a few hours and encouraged him to get some more sleep. Three hours later, he was back with the gift bag, reminding, in his customary not-so-gentle fashion, he had a special gift for her.
During the week prior, Carson and Miss Danielle — who we are blessed to have working with Carson some this summer — created a wonderful painting for Pam. It was awesome, featuring crayons glued to a canvas and then melted with a blow dryer so the colors ran down. Then several sunflowers were glued on the canvas. It was beautiful and Carson was quite proud of it. The gift bag also had a number of Carson’s touches on it with a variety of his favorite stickers affixed.
On Friday, Carson and Miss Danielle found a safe hiding spot for the gift in his room. It was so secretive I wasn’t even allowed to know where it was. Carson was adamant about that.
What I love about this boy is that he woke up from a deep sleep at 2 in the morning, remembered where the gift was and wanted so badly to present it to his mom. His excitement led to him forgetting what day it was, of course, but that didn’t matter.
When Pam tried to get him to wait until the next day — her actual birthday — he insisted. He would have cried his heart out if she insisted but he couldn’t contain himself.
While I probably should have been looking at Pam’s face when she opened it, I couldn’t stop smiling as I watched Carson’s expressions as his mom opened her gift. His heart was so full. The boy truly understands the gift of giving, and I know it was her favorite gift she received on her birthday as well as the day before.
