LEARNING AT THE POTTER'S WHEEL

“Nooooo! I don’t want that!”Z-man has been educating me in the art of parenting again.

He’s my independent child. He’s got all of the enthusiasm, but lacks some of the skills needed to accomplish tasks without help.

I know this about him, but sometimes I get caught up in the hurry of going about the day and absentmindedly do things for him. Thankfully, he isn’t about to let me get away with it.

This morning, I was helping him get dressed. We went through the regular drill: underwear, shirt, pants . . . No problem. Right? Wrong!

He began to snatch at his jeans and complain loudly. I was puzzled because I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Finally, I removed clothing down to the underwear. He showed me that certain items weren’t arranged properly – as all big boys know they should be. We got that taken care of and replaced clothing. I could tell he still wasn’t quite pleased with my approach, but not knowing anything more about the intricacies of boys’ clothing, we made do with what we had.

When my husband got home, I ran the scenario past him. He began to laugh and fill in the blanks for me.

Apparently, one of the highlights of Z-man’s day is to watch Daddy get dressed. Every detail is carefully observed and then Z-man follows suit. There are rules that must be followed. They are subject to change without notice (especially to mamas):

1. Little man must be standing with his back facing his helper. This is so that he can get the feel for pulling on his own trousers. This explains the protests I was getting there.

2. Pants must be unbuttoned/unsnapped and unzipped before pulling them on because that’s how Daddy does it. Of course!

3. Before zipping and snapping, we must make sure all boy parts are due south. That one I caught onto today.

4. T-shirts are not to be shoved over the head. Apparently, Daddy’s method is to thread hands through the sleeves and then raise arms over the head while the shirt is pulled down over the head and arms at the SAME TIME. I don’t get this one, but I guess it’s a guy thing.

Every rule about getting dressed that he has, I (in my female ignorance) broke. So, it’s back to mama training school for me. You’d think that I wasn’t the one to get him dressed every day to be so completely clueless on these matters!

Note to self: Z-man is constantly striving for independent living skills and not for someone to do things for him. Stop. Take a deep breath. Let the other stuff wait. We are training for a lifetime and that might take a few more minutes.

Note to God: THANK YOU, LORD, for the gift of my husband. He is SUCH a GOOD Daddy!

\\V//^\\V//\\V//^\\V//\\V//^\\V//
“. . . and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us”
Hebrews 12:1