In an old Dennis the Menace cartoon, Alice, Dennis’ mother, comes into the living room to see the dog, Ruff, sitting in the corner, where she usually puts Dennis when he has misbehaved. Dennis stands nearby with his arms crossed and says, “He [Ruff] was bad today. He growled at a Seeing Eye Dog.”
However wry the humor, it makes a point: for all of his immaturity, Dennis has enough understanding to mete out punishment, which he understands from his own experience, to his dog when he believes the dog has done something highly improper (growling at a blind person’s dog).
So: Do you know of children (even your own) who have done or said anything suggesting wisdom or ideals far beyond their years?
When my son was six one of my clients gave me a puppy from their latest litter.
One day the the puppy did something wrong, as puppies do and I scolded him a little and told him he was a ‘bad bad dog’.
My son spoke up and said,‘MOMMY! He is not a bad dog, he is just a puppy. He’s young and he doesn’t know any better and it’s our job to teach him. Then when he knows better he won’t do bad things anymore’.
sahkid sounds like he is/was/will be one of the best dog owners ever.
He has a lot of patience and is a lot smarter than his mother.
I was at a small public outdoor skate rink, it was busy with people, I was walking by with my dog, and stopped so some people could pat him, standing just beside the rink. Among the throng was a brother sister couple, the older girl, about 10, was trying to teach her younger brother, about 8, how to skate backwards, something I have never been able to master, even with two brothers coaching me. So from the corner of my eye, I’m watching as they circle around a couple of times. One one of those passes I am close enough to hear her say to him, “You have to keep your mind open. Wide open!”
I stood and watched a couple more minutes, and you could see it was working, he was getting it!
Blew me away. Thought about it for days afterward!
When my son was 18 mos he went to a really nice home-based day care. One sunny morning I was dropping him off and chatting with one of the two women who ran it (a woman and her daughter-in-law). The DIL was putting sunblock on one of the other toddlers, while another 10 mos old baby, Sarah, was sitting playing on a blanket in the shade.
Sarah started to fuss a bit, and the DIL said to her in a sweet sing-song voice, that’d she’d have to wait one minute while she finished up.
My son, waiting to get sunblocked too, looked at Sarah, walked over to her blanket with a toy and sat with her until the DIL was finished up. I was amazed that such a little toddler could understand exactly the problem, have empathy for the baby and solve the situation.