Saturday, August 9, 2008

Something New, #104

I pride myself on being a slacker parent.

That is to say, I don't spend a lot of time doing every little thing for my kids. From the time they were both old enough to understand, and when they wanted me to do something for them, I'd say "Try it yourself first."

Another one of my parenting philosophies comes from one of Carrie Fisher's novels, I'm not sure which, probably "Illusions of Grandma," where on of the character's parenting advice is "You mostly point things out to them."

I've always pointed out things like, "Look at those geese," "See that car painted to look like a dog," "There's a person dressed in a banana costume."

Today I learned that my kids have actually been listening when I do that.

Both the girls and I were in the car and The Big One announced, "Cow." I thought she meant she'd seen a cow being pulled in trailer, but she said she'd seen a giant cow, like for a display, on the back of a truck.

I was so very pleased she'd noticed, and I wished I'd seen it.

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