Simple Enough For Kids

Simple Enough For Kids

      What lessons do we learn from kids? Christmas and the holiday season is a special time around our household. Just like racing, the festivities take planning, preparation, and execution. During all of the hustle and bustle our kids were able to remind us of some important principles.

Kid stuff – Christmas 2009

Our three kids worked together to write and choreograph two Christmas plays to present to us. We were impressed that they wanted to present their productions before opening any presents. Their first play was an interpretation of the Christmas story. They allowed me to participate, but did not give me any lines. They let me be the donkey! The second was a more modern interpretation of Christmas celebration, including Santa Claus coming down the chimney.

We were impressed that the kids wanted to remember the meaning of Christmas first and chose to save the presents for later. The youngsters set their priorities and had the patience to do the right thing, saving the “fun stuff” for later. Wow – what a lesson for us.

When we finally began opening presents, I had a homemade gift that was wrapped in many layers of tissue paper. When I finally got through the wrapping and saw what was inside my daughter blurted out that it was a “scientific tragedy!” Apparently, she had made a snow globe for me which had some adverse chemical reaction resulting in a total mess inside a glass jar. We all had a good laugh. This lesson is that sometimes it really is that the thought that counts, and the thought behind this gift was huge, meaningful, and memorable.

We all accepted the “scientific tragedy” with good humor and continued to enjoy our day. The importance of giving is something that we many times talk about. Seeing the importance of giving in action, particularly from little ones, is very impressive. We were so proud of the kids that instead of ripping into their own gifts, they were more excited to give gifts to mom and dad. They were also excited for the gifts, many of them homemade, that they had for each other.

The children’s excitement about giving was also a tremendous demonstration of generosity. It was also a reminder that generosity does not always have to be material. Many times the most important generosity is generosity of the heart.

Christmas certainly is a time for love. Our household was filled with love. This love spread from our house to our extended families, many friends, and colleagues. We are fortunate that we were able to give and receive an abundance of love over the Christmas holiday.

Finally, as our six-year-old son explained to Granddaddy, “The presents aren’t the most important part of Christmas.” The lessons from the kids are lessons for us all. They are life lessons that will never let us down.

Working on kid stuff,

David