Nip It In The Bud
After school one day last week, my daughter made this announcement:
" School is boring". Mind you, we only are in week three of kindergarten.
I knew I was faced with one of those pivotal points in parenthood where my reaction must be firm and swift. Therefore I decided to do a Barney Fife and nip this kind of talk in the bud right here and now!
"Oh, I see", I said. "This is easy to remedy. I will e-mail your teacher right now and let her know in no uncertain terms that she is to pile on the work because my daughter is bored. Then, I will make sure she sends all your work home so I can go through it with a fine tooth comb to see if you could possibly improve on anything therefore eliminating boredom forthwith!" (I can't remember but I may have even called her 'Missy' to emphasize my indignation)
You can imagine how this went over. She threw herself at my mercy and begged me not to tell her teacher. Then she rushed over to unload the dishwasher.
I trust we will not be bored again anytime soon.
On Sunday I was in the restroom at church taking care of business, when two little girls came in. Judging by what I could see through the crack in the stall door, they were about eight years old. Here is a recap of their conversation:
Girl 1: You want to race with me?
Girl 2: Racing is sooooo boring.
Girl 1: Well, yeah, I guess it can be. But it can be fun sometimes.
Girl 2: No. It is boring.
Girl 1: I bet I could beat you if we did race
Girl 2: Bet you couldn't ...if ...I wanted to race
Girl 1: Bet I could....
...Well, you get the picture. This cogent conversation was continuing as they were walking out the door. What is up with 'boring'? Is it the new cool thing...to be bored? I cannot even imagine saying that to my mother under ANY circumstances. If I had, I would have found myself paving the driveway.
Boring is not going to be cool again anytime soon at my house. As a matter of fact, our next verse to memorize will be this one:
Philippians 4:12
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
4 comments:
You know what it means when kids are bored in kindergarten...right?!?! THat means they are GENIUS! Does that make you feel better?
These are the stories that let me know it's OK that I won't have a kid as early as 34 (unless we get busy over the next few months and squeeze one in by July). There is no way a 23 year old would have come up with that response. It would have been, "Oh no, honey! you're bored? I was so bored in school just a few years ago! I totally understand! It must be that stinky teacher." With age comes wisdom, and the realization that those authority figures should be respected!
Jodi, Amen sister. What is worse, is when adults claim bordom. What bores! :)
I read something somewhere that all this boredom stuff at school does NOT denote genius as some academics would like for us to think. The theory was that TV, video games, etc are creating this thrill seeking, being entertained culture that is not used to just listening and learning. I tend to agree.
So true, Sarah. You know, we could study the Word 24/7 and still learn something new that speaks to us. In the past year, I have turned off talk radio, TV (which was not hard for me as I only watched a few things) and quit visiting lucianne, fox, drudge, national review, american spectator, etc.
I cannot believe that I do not miss any of it! The Lord has turned my heart to Him. I do visit quite a few sites that teach the Word. I have never been so fulfilled.
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