My nephew is here from Chico until Tuesday. My parents' Rotary Club is having their fund raiser tonight. So, I am watching him, along with Patrick. They came over here after lunch and first, played Twister. Then Battleship. Battleship didn't go too well. My nephew kept accusing Patrick of cheating. And for Patrick, you just don't question his integrity. He doesn't cheat. So I made them stop playing because Patrick was getting upset.
They decided to play with Legos. And they were fine for a while. Then they decided to build with their magnetic things. (I don't know what they are). Patrick was complaining about Carter (my nephew) had more pieces. So Patrick counted them out. There were 51 pieces, so Patrick offered Carter 26 and Patrick would have 25. It was not prompted in any way by me. That's just his nature. So I called him down the hall and told him that I was proud of him for sharing and for offering Carter more pieces. He put his hands on his head and told me he was totally frustrated. He was trying to share with Carter, but Carter wasn't paying attention and just took the pieces he wanted. Patrick also told me he was upset that Carter thought he was cheating at Battleship. I told him that he could take a break from playing if he wanted. So he came in my room and watched Hannah Montana.
I took the boys to my parents' Rotary fundraiser last night. And though they are only 5 months apart in age, they are years apart in maturity. It's not a knock on my nephew. He's 7 and he has the maturity of a 7 year old. Patrick is more mature and I'm used to that. He's been my measuring stick because he's the only kid I have. It's a maturity thing and I'm not sure that it's always good that Patrick is so mature. Sometimes I think he is just too grown up and missing parts of childhood because he's so mature. But, at the same time, that maturity makes it easy for him to share. And to be a good teammate and to understand that sometimes it's better to compromise than fight.
I thought it was particularly nice of him to offer Carter more pieces of Legos to play with. And it's typical of how he is. I love him so much. Not just because he's mature, but because he's sympathetic and empathetic. And he's just a really good kid.
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