"God bless the child that's got his own," Billie Holiday liked to sing about money. And I couldn't agree more. Anakin is up to $91.00 and he's very proud. He's saved it from his allowance ($1.50/week), from a few extra chores (very few), and from gifts from family and friends. As a parent, I find his having his own money fabulous. Now when he wants something, we remind him he can buy it himself, and it’s helping him parse his priorities.
"The thing is," he tells me breathlessly in the grocery store, after pointing longingly at the $5.99 Penguin Club access card: "I just can't spare it right now."
Holiday is singing about money with this line, but somehow I've always heard that chorus differently; I've heard it along the lines of Sweet Honey and the Rock's "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and the daughters of life's longing for itself" (which they borrowed from Kahlil Gibran). Indeed, I've always heard it as, "God bless the child that's got his own thing going, his own way of being."
The line hums through my mind during Ani's play dates with his classmate, Oscar. Oscar was a maple tree last Halloween, complete with sap bucket. His mother made him his costume. And the last time he was in our living room he informed Ani that he's not allowed to play with toy guns, that his mother won't let him because guns hurt and kill people (and my guilt did floweth over).
Now you might read this and feel bad for Oscar: the victim of a peacenik mother who will surely doom him socially. Or you might want to make her your champion. But here's the thing; it turns out Oscar's mom has never once told him no toy guns or sword play. Indeed, she's wondered if she shouldn't initiate it so he may get along better with others (!). Oscar, meanwhile, gravitates toward magic tricks and Ani's toy kitchen.
Yes, God bless the child that's got his own.
"The thing is," he tells me breathlessly in the grocery store, after pointing longingly at the $5.99 Penguin Club access card: "I just can't spare it right now."
Holiday is singing about money with this line, but somehow I've always heard that chorus differently; I've heard it along the lines of Sweet Honey and the Rock's "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and the daughters of life's longing for itself" (which they borrowed from Kahlil Gibran). Indeed, I've always heard it as, "God bless the child that's got his own thing going, his own way of being."
The line hums through my mind during Ani's play dates with his classmate, Oscar. Oscar was a maple tree last Halloween, complete with sap bucket. His mother made him his costume. And the last time he was in our living room he informed Ani that he's not allowed to play with toy guns, that his mother won't let him because guns hurt and kill people (and my guilt did floweth over).
Now you might read this and feel bad for Oscar: the victim of a peacenik mother who will surely doom him socially. Or you might want to make her your champion. But here's the thing; it turns out Oscar's mom has never once told him no toy guns or sword play. Indeed, she's wondered if she shouldn't initiate it so he may get along better with others (!). Oscar, meanwhile, gravitates toward magic tricks and Ani's toy kitchen.
Yes, God bless the child that's got his own.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment