A family journey: Wednesday is K Day

A family journey: Wednesday is K Day: Wednesday is K day, each week I pick him up because his Mother has no coverage for him on that day. This happens to be my favorite day of th...

Wednesday is K Day

Wednesday is K day, each week I pick him up because his Mother has no coverage for him on that day. This happens to be my favorite day of the week, I am off from work, all my friends know this day is special and we have a ritual. We run errands on the way from his town to mine, sometimes we stop at the feed store, he is very welcome there! There are horse shoes, baby chickens and a host of other things that a 4 year old finds fascinating. We also go to the 99 cent store, now anyone who teaches Sunday school or works in a day care or especially a grandparent knows the value of a dollar store.

K knows the value of money, so every time as he selects his gift from Grandma there he asks, between his 2 or 3 choices "how much is this one"? A dollar K, and week after week it goes. This past Wednesday I let him go to the cashier ahead of me proudly holding his own money(along with the dime for tax. Tax is a perplexing issue for a 4 year old, but with only the wisdom of a 4 year old will you accept that Grandma says this is the law( you know like child seats..etc)

Ahead of us was an elderly gentlemen..he greeted us with "what is a white woman doing in the store with a white child?" I know I said this blog was not about social issues etc. but K's reaction to this is the reason I am sharing this with you. He could tell from the tone of this man that his Grandma was not being greeted in the manner he was accustomed too. His reply as I stood in confusion was "Hey Guy!!!" This is weather either I blew it, or since we are working on manners I told this little boy who wanted to defend his Grandmother that the gentlemen was mature and there for we should address him as sir. With that he paid for his purchase and left.

When I approached the cashier she said, "I am so sorry about that". I shared that it is not our problem but his. At the end of the day when I shared this with Grandpa, he asked me the nationality or ethnicity of this gentlemen, I do not know! I stopped seeing people in any other light then how they behaved years ago. so I have decided that I would be useless in any description to a law enforcement artist...

When we got home K played happily with his new purchase and we worked on our camping trailer( I highly suggest this is not a project to attempt with any pre-schooler). Suddenly he was gone! I was on the hunt only to have him show up with his store play money, saying we would need money to camp and wanted to hide it in the trailer..which he did.

As I said in my introduction, Grandpa and I are confused with some of the things we see. Should we be so concerned with with color or money? The point of this "camping" was to learn to rely on ourselves and not let the social issues of the day or money inter fear with this! Or is this just a sign of the times that even pre-schoolers need to learn to deal with?

The Plan

A while back we were playing Would you Rather with the older Grandsons, a great game giving a group of multi-generational members a way to communicate and share values. This has turned out to be important in a world where so many teens communicate by texting rather then talking eye to eye. I have nothing against texting, tweets, face book, all the video games online and off, but I am beginning to think in using so many of these great time savers we are losing some aspects of the art of conversation.

Body language comes to mind in this respect, it adds richness to a conversation that in lost in electronic communication. It also adds a clarity that we are unable to define in a quick tweet, making misunderstandings less frequent.

But back to the point of this post, one of the questions which came up was " Would you rather be lost in the woods and have to fight off a wild animal with your bare hands or have to start a fire with out matches? O.K. I am a little older so I thought this was a no-brain er..and we would all have the same answer. Wrong..I do not play video games which I am ultra-human and can fight wild animals with just the might of my hand held controller..no I am mortal, a line which is evidently blurred for young teens with no experience outside of their well-defined gated communities.

Now starting a fire with out matches would be impossible according to J(age 15) and N(age 13 )Where did this lack of knowledge come from? So as I said I have nothing against technology so off to you- tube we went to discover the many videos posted on how to start a fire without matches!This is where my husband and I developed the plan ...we will take the boys camping once a month, we will get them in the fresh out-doors, commune with nature, have great philosophical conversations and grow closer as a family!So armed with my new America the Beautiful pass , a Christmas gift from my youngest son R, given with a smile and a " are you sure this is want you really want Mom?"I set off on an exploration of possibilities via internet of coarse..lol

Our friends and neighbors who have always supported us in any way they could since we joined this community 33 years ago began showering us with an avalanche of items we would need to rough it. As all of this is making itself known in the corner of what once was my formal dining room. The 4 year old K is really getting into it, when he is here he gathers small twigs for our fire, sleeps in one of the sleeping bags so he can practice and saves empty matchbook covers that is finds in great places like parking lots so his brothers will not have to build fires with out matches or fight wild animals!

We even purchased a small used travel trailer( for roughing it?) for our up-coming adventures. A wonderful couple who live around the corner convinced us we did not want to travel with this precious cargo and not have a clean bathroom with us! I have to wonder during the move to settle the west how those hardy pioneers managed with out a clean bathroom, but then I am sure they did not need air-mattresses, camp stoves, cots, arctic rated sleeping bags, extra long handled implements to roast marshmallows or any of the other items stacking higher in our dining room.

So we have a plan..we have stuff..we are moving into the future...