Learning moments not just for kids

Today I learned from my daughter Alina. I learned patience and understanding can change everything. We had a busy morning going to swim classes. Afterward's we had a picnic lunch. We than ventured over to the library to check in for the summer reading program.

Jasz loves the library as the children's area has a lot of short tables that he can easily stand up on as well as puzzles all the kids enjoy playing with. There is a puppet show area with lots of puppets and a "stage" as well.

When we walked in today there was this boy named Joshua. I know his name is Joshua because his mom called his name quite often while I was there. He had lined up all the puppets except for the very large anteater. He then began hucking the anteater across the room at the poor smaller puppets. He couldn't quite throw it that far so he began swinging this puppet about wildly. Sometimes knocking a puppet down sometimes barely missing one of my children's faces. One of the librarians whispers, "Oh I don't think you should be waving that around you might hit someone." At which point a disembodied voice shouts ,"Joshua!!"

Next Joshua starts climbing the puppet stage and again the librarian says "Oh I don't think that's a good idea." Again the disembodied "Joshua". Meanwhile my kids had avoided the puppet area for fear of getting hit. So they had each picked a puzzle to play with. Once deterred from climbing the furniture, Joshua tries to take the puzzle from Jasz. I was there however, so I said "No thank-you he has that one." Again the disembodied voice.

So, he moves on to the puzzle that Alina is using and he says, "I was gonna play with that one." I waited for the reaction because Alina can be one who gets VERY upset at things like that. She however looks at him and very calmly says, "Well, you can't right now because I am using it. But you can help me if you want." At this point Joshua finally calms down as though he had just been waiting for someone to want to spend time with him. He sat down and started putting that puzzle together WITH Alina. And they were very sweet together. It was funny because I was at my boiling point and she just completely diffused the situation. It wasn't all Joshua's fault because there was another family of little one's whose mom had simply brought them into the children's area and left to go find a book. The littlest one wanted whatever puzzle Jasz was playing with. I was trying to be nice but there was a protective side to me that just doesn't want my child hurt.

But my daughter taught me a lesson today. A little calm and understanding of what is really is going on can completely change someone's attitude. Little Joshua's mother never actually came over, never paid attention to him. But Alina did and his whole demeanor changed. He just needed a friend.

Thanks for the lesson Alina.