MrSikhNet

Well, it seems that somehow we missed spring weather. The weather is so odd these days. It went from cold winter….to mid to upper 70’s (temperature). I was outside most of the weekend working in the yard getting all our garden related things ready for spring. The above picture is of my vegetable garden with drip watering lines. I can already visualize the fresh veggies!

It was great being outside in the warm weather. I was cleaning out our fountain which is outside…and realized that some mischievous boy (Hint Hint) had cut through the rubber liner, and so water was leaking out. Grrr…. kids always seem to find ways to cause trouble. Now I have to figure out a way to seal it up without having to break apart the whole fountain to replace the rubber liner. I’ll try rubber cement. I hope it works. Oh well…such is life as a parent.

Narayan had another interesting learning experience this afternoon. As we stopped at the Auto Parts store to get a tire repair kit (the rubber cement for the fountain)…I noticed Narayan walking down the isles looking at stuff. I got the glue and paid for it. We then drove home, and right after we got home I noticed him head straight to his room and close the door. Closing the door like this generally means he is being sneaky and got a hold of some candy. Or it could be something else that he is trying to hide.  Kids always think us parents don’t notice these things…..Haha… they are too obvious! "Papa Sees All!"  I walked in and caught him with two key chains. One was a Superman symbol and the other had Dodge Ram symbol. He was pretty surprised of me catching him. I realized that while we were at the store he had seen them and put them in his pocket. This is one of those innocent things that I think probably all kids learn. I then explained to him that it wasn’t ok to take things without paying for them and that he had to bring them back to the store. At hearing this he got really upset and emotional…but I wanted to make him understand that it wasn’t ok. I then tried to explain about being honest, earning money to buy things…being a Sikh…and that some people go to jail for stealing expensive things (I think that one opened his eyes). After he calmed down a bit I was able to get him into the car for our trip back to the store.

Anyways… without going into more detail…it was one of those important lessons for Narayan that I’m glad he went through. As young kids most don’t understand morality till they get a bit older. It’s easy for a kid to sneak a friend’s toy in their pocket….or take something that they like… without much thought. There are so many of these lessons that we as parents have to teach our kids. It felt good going through the whole process and in the end seeing the change in Narayan. I could have just taken the items back myself and left Narayan at home…but him having to bring it back I think made a big impact. He promised to never take anything from stores again without paying…and to ask his friends to borrow items before taking them. Hopefully we are over this lesson, because there are many more to come :)

I would love to hear any stories from other parents of lessons that you and your kids went through.