One thing I am learning as my children age is how much more they need me then I ever realized about kids of nine and seven. It's funny because you sort of think once they can feed themselves, fall asleep on their own, wipe their butts and tie their shoes well, then parenting is just about getting them to school on time and making sure they don't watch too much TV. But it is so much more now, so much more complex, so much more intense. They want to know things now and not just details like why the sky is blue. They want to know what to do when a friend says something mean or a teacher won't let them go to the bathroom. They want to know why countries go to war and why someone would kill Martin Luther King.
And, sometimes they want to know things you think they already do. We were playing Yahtzee last night - a game we've played before - and I was suggesting my son take his score in his ones row. He looked at me in dire frustration and said, "I don't know how to talk Yahtzee!" And I realized for all he does know, all his ability to decipher the Wii way better than me, to play the DS with a sure and steady hand, that there are still things he doesn't know and it is still my job to guide him.
And it made me feel a glad to know he still needs me.
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