23rd June 2009

A nice image

Little Gesture Big Gratitude A day of enlightenment indeed.  As I worked diligently today my six year old son paced back and forth, over and over in a lost state.  I asked him, “what’s wrong son?”  He replied with the saddest little face, “I’m bored dad, there’s nothing to do.  Can we go to the dirt and jump ramps on our bikes?”  I calmly said “even though dad is at home I am still working, I don’t get a summer vacation like you son.”  He continued to give me that look, you know the “How could anyone resist this sad little face look.”   I told him that after I’m done with work we will definitely go and ride bikes.  His sad face eased just a bit as he said “you promise dad.”  I said “of course son.”  He patiently waited for several hours as I ran in and out on errands and to business meetings.  About 5:30pm rolled around and I could see the anxiousness is his little face as he anticipated the thrill of riding his dirt bike on dangerously large hills and jumping dirt ramps. It was now dinner time and he asked softly “dad are we still riding?”  Exhausted and super hungry I answered “yes son after dinner.”  As we all know the combination of an extremely long day and a big dinner equals end of the day food coma!  After dinner I thought I would sit for a few minutes and let my food digest…. Not a good move because I fell asleep! My son did not complain or even try to wake me, which was a huge surprise because he would usually ask if I was ready every 2 minutes or so.  After a bit my body was like an alarm clock and I woke at 6:58, two minutes before we were supposed to go riding. I promptly got up and put on my shoes and gestured to my son, let’s roll!  You should have seen the look on his face!  It was if I had just told him that we were going to disneyland or the candy store.  It was like pure happiness overflowing from his smile with an uncontrollable energy.  In my mind I had not really done anything special, because we go riding often, but today was different.  After a while my son says to me “Thank you so much for taking me riding dad because I know that you are very tired and I didn’t think that you were going to take me.”  Then it struck me, that sometimes as parents we tell our kids one thing but circumstances change and we do another, which leads our kids to believe that it’s ok to not follow through with our word if the circumstances make it hard. The moral of this story is “Do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you are going to do it, because to a child your word means everything!” Not only will your children learn valuable lessons from your actions, but you will also be showered with tons of gratitude from the little people that you love most. D.M. (Devan Martinez)

Little Gesture Big Gratitude

A day of enlightenment indeed.  As I worked diligently today my six year old son paced back and forth, over and over in a lost state.  I asked him, “what’s wrong son?”  He replied with the saddest little face, “I’m bored dad, there’s nothing to do.  Can we go to the dirt and jump ramps on our bikes?”  I calmly said “even though dad is at home I am still working, I don’t get a summer vacation like you son.”  He continued to give me that look, you know the “How could anyone resist this sad little face look.”   I told him that after I’m done with work we will definitely go and ride bikes.  His sad face eased just a bit as he said “you promise dad.”  I said “of course son.”  He patiently waited for several hours as I ran in and out on errands and to business meetings.  About 5:30pm rolled around and I could see the anxiousness is his little face as he anticipated the thrill of riding his dirt bike on dangerously large hills and jumping dirt ramps.

It was now dinner time and he asked softly “dad are we still riding?”  Exhausted and super hungry I answered “yes son after dinner.”  As we all know the combination of an extremely long day and a big dinner equals end of the day food coma!  After dinner I thought I would sit for a few minutes and let my food digest…. Not a good move because I fell asleep!

My son did not complain or even try to wake me, which was a huge surprise because he would usually ask if I was ready every 2 minutes or so.  After a bit my body was like an alarm clock and I woke at 6:58, two minutes before we were supposed to go riding. I promptly got up and put on my shoes and gestured to my son, let’s roll!  You should have seen the look on his face!  It was if I had just told him that we were going to disneyland or the candy store.  It was like pure happiness overflowing from his smile with an uncontrollable energy.  In my mind I had not really done anything special, because we go riding often, but today was different.  After a while my son says to me “Thank you so much for taking me riding dad because I know that you are very tired and I didn’t think that you were going to take me.”  Then it struck me, that sometimes as parents we tell our kids one thing but circumstances change and we do another, which leads our kids to believe that it’s ok to not follow through with our word if the circumstances make it hard.

The moral of this story is “Do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you are going to do it, because to a child your word means everything!” Not only will your children learn valuable lessons from your actions, but you will also be showered with tons of gratitude from the little people that you love most.

D.M. (Devan Martinez)