Over the weekend, LittleMan decided to experiment with the scissors, glue and printer paper. Being a non-crafty-type mom myself, I did the best thing I could do for him - I got out of his way.
After about 30 minutes of snipping and mumbling, I wandered into the dining room to see how Little Man was doing.
Me - How's it going?
LittleMan - Good!
BoopaLoop - Good! [She was in charge of glue. Fortunately, she actually got some glue on the paper.]
Me - Wow! What are you guys making?
LittleMan - [Trying to fold a piece of paper into eighths] Letters. Mom, I want to mail these to the children that are starving in another country.
Me - [?!?!?!] Uh... okay honey, but we have to find an address for those children.
I know! I'm a dunderhead!! I was so perplexed by my kids' behavior that I didn't even congratulate them on being generous or for thinking of others. I was completely flummoxed.
BoopaLoop - We put our coins in the paper.
Me - You did! Wow! May I see?
I picked up one of the four "letters" that had been glued together (that's right GLUED!), and I shook it. Sure enough, there was one or two coins rattling around inside.
Me - Well, you know another way you can send money to kids that really need it?
Both kids stop what they are doing to look at me.
Me - We can give your coins to a charity or to people who do nothing more than make certain your money gets to the children that really, really need it.
The kids follow me to my computer. I look up charities on the American Institute of Philanthropy. My first thought was to donate to Compassion International, but I wanted to check on the charity watchdog site first to see which charities were well run. Compassion was given an A-, but there was another charity that expanded their support to more than just young children. At the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, we could instead pick a teenager or elder person to sponsor, and they received an A+.
However, the whole point of this was to have my children pick who they wanted to help, so they picked to sponsor a child. So, for $30 a month, we are now sponsoring a child somewhere.
Me - Okay, that's it! We will receive a letter from this charity letting us know who the child is we are sponsoring. And, when we pay them money every month, Mommy and Daddy will take out some of your money from the piggybank! You'll be helping this child too!
BoopaLoop - [Got bored half way through my Internet search]
LittleMan - [Walking away] I don't want to do it. I've changed my mind.
Rats, I knew I should have just mailed the glued letters to my mom.
5 comments:
"I went too far, didn't I? When should I have stopped?"
No, don't think so..... they just aren't ready for commitment yet... aw...another couple of decades maybe?
Everybody learned.
The kids learned something that they might not absorb right now, but there will be a time when they look back and realize that you tried to encourage them in their compassion. That memory will be strong and beneficial and lasting.
You learned (and earned) another stripe in the continuous role of Momhood.
Have they brought you a baby bird that fell out of its nest yet?
hahA HAHA HEHE...Mom
ATBD = Dang... what is that quote from?
Soggi = My mom was in her 30s when she contributed to these types of charities, I'm in my 30s, so I think it will be 3 decades before my kids get it :).
Don = Ah, it is nice to hear the bright side to this folly. Baby bird?! Not yet, so bite your tongue!
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