It was a weepy last weekend for our sensitive little boy. Friday
on the way to school, Aaron showed me something a classmate had given
him. It was an EBT Access card, which is used by low-income families to
purchase food. Apparently, his classmate had found it and given it to
him. I told Aaron this was something very important to get back to
their original owner, and asked him to safeguard it in his pocket and
give it to his teacher as soon as he got to school. In my attempt to
impress upon him the seriousness of this task, and to make him feel
brave, I think instead I made him scared, and he started crying and
saying he didn't want the responsibility. I brought him to the
cafeteria for breakfast and had him show the nice hall monitor who
always sits with him to get her help. When I picked him up later that
day, he said that he had turned the card in, and Amy and I sang his
praises for his act of bravery.Saturday we went swimming at the Y like we usually do, but there was a new lifeguard, who wouldn't let the kids in the pool until after I was done swimming laps (the other lifeguard lets them in even if I'm not right next to them, since they're both wearing vests). I cut my lap-swimming short and went over with the kids so they could get in the water, but Aaron got scared by the lifeguard and started crying. I asked him what was wrong and he told me he had a bandage on his thumb and you're not allowed in the pool if you're wearing one. He felt stuck because he didn't want to take his bandage off - his cut was still pretty fresh - and he didn't want to try to sneak one past the lifeguard because he was afraid to get caught and yelled out. So he just cried on the edge of the pool until we left.
On our way home, Aaron, spooked by the whole experience, said he didn't want to take swim class, but I said swim class (which starts next week) is important because we'll be going to a hotel next summer that has a pool and I wasn't planning on packing our swim vests. This scared him - he said "but I'll sink to the bottom" - and no matter how much I insisted that he would know how to swim by then, he could not be consoled until Amy embraced him.
I remember being a sensitive little boy. My mom comforted me and my dad pushed me to become more brave. So are we trying with our little Goo Bear.
