While preparing for school this morning, my 6 year old came to me and said, ” Mummy, please can I wear this yellow sport’s day t-shirt, instead of the regular blue one I wear to school?”
Now, everyday at her school, she is required to wear a blue t-shirt, which is the school’s daily uniform; and on Fridays, she gets to wear a white t-shirt on a blue short.
But during a sports day event which held at her school recently, she was given a yellow t-shirt because she belonged to the yellow team. This yellow t-shirt is meant to be worn only during sports day events and today isn’t one of those days.
So, I asked her, why do you want to wear your yellow t-shirt today? Today isn’t sports day, and she said “but mummy other people wear it in class!”
For a split second, on hearing that, I was almost about permitting her to wear the yellow t-shirt too. Then I thought to myself, this is a perfect moment to teach a very valuable lesson that will guide my daughter through out her life.
So, I changed my mind, I told her, “If other people are doing something wrong, should you join them?” She replied, “no mummy.”
Then she went on to say, “Mummy, but can I wear my dance club t-shirt instead?” I almost said, yes to this also, because truly, today is Wednesday and they have dance club activities, it wouldn’t hurt if she wore it, but I didn’t give her a reply.
The next thing I saw was, she had hopped away to her room to get her blue t-shirt, the right one meant to be worn today and I thought to myself, “Kayla, just learnt a great lesson today!”
Yes, we had a discussion but the final decision was hers. She chose to do the right thing and that means alot to me as a parent and will also guide her through life, as she is being faced with the choice to either follow the crowd or do what is right.
Let’s take advantage of those teachable moments that show up everyday in the lives of our young children.
Recent Comments