Last night I was given a little piece of wisdom or maybe it was insight. It came from someone who’s been around long enough to really observe and understand the inner workings of a child. I was told that you’ll learn more about a parent directly from the child as opposed to either hearing it from the parent or watching the parent. I reflected on that statement for a moment especially in light of what one child in my Vacation Bible School class said to me, and it had me thinking…I wonder what my child really thinks about me?

For those of you unaware, I am teaching 4th grade girls this year at my church’s Vacation Bible School. It’s been an awakening for me especially since I don’t have much experience working with young girls. It’s actually made me secretly (not so secretly now that I’m sharing it with you all) hope that this baby I’m carrying is indeed a little boy. Little girls are a lot more talkative than their gender counterparts. Even at the ages of 8 or 9, they seem to be willing to gossip, to share insight, and apparently the truth.

The first night of VBS, I informed the girls I was pregnant. They were all super sweet and said they couldn’t tell (I attribute this to my genetic makeup) and that I looked really pretty. In light of what was said to me last night; however, I’m unsure if I’m really being told the truth.

As the girls arrived last night and I took my seat alongside them on the floor, one of the little girls said to me that she still couldn’t believe I was pregnant. I asked her why. She said it was because I was able to sit on the floor, and play games in the gym, and walk around with all of them. I just smiled at her as she continued on to tell me that when her mother was pregnant she didn’t do anything but lie on the couch all day. OK. I explained that I take naps in the afternoon, but she still insisted that her mother was in the little girl’s words, “lazy”.

I had another little girl tell me that her mother didn’t have any worries. The “worry” comment stemmed from last night’s Bible verse. I asked her why she thought her mother didn’t have any worries and she said her mother was responsible. I said that’s great, but most mother’s have worries especially when it comes to their kids. She quickly retorted with a “no” because her mom let’s her walk down the street by herself where cars could run over her (her words not mine). OK.

As the girls played their games in the gym, I sat alongside one of our older churchmembers, a father and grandfather himself. I relayed the stories from the girls to him and he chuckled. That’s when he said, “you learn more about a child’s parents from the child than you do the parents.”

Hmmm….That had me thinking all night and even into this morning, hence the reason for the blog. I wonder what my child thinks about me. I wonder what he “sees” in our day-to-day activities. I wonder what he’ll say about me when he’s able to coherently form sentences. It’s actually placed me on my toes. I can only imagine the things that will be said about me one day and what sort of liberties will be taken with the truth.

I certainly hope that one day Davey will talk about how I cleaned up after him or took care of him when he was sick, not that I put him in front of the television so that I could have a few minutes to myself. I hope that he tells the stories about how I sat and read to him daily and not about the fact that I told him I was going to lock him in the coat closet if he misbehaved. I hope that he tells people that I was pretty when I was pregnant with his sibling and not a fat cow who moaned and groaned.

Only time will tell what sort of “truth” spouts from my son’s mouth and let’s not even think about the second one on the way.