Sunday, May 25, 2008

How to Tell that Your Son Spends Too Much Time at Church

We have a few hard and fast rules about what Sam can and cannot play with in our house. Being 2 1/2, Sam naturally wants to play with those things. There's the antique metronome on the piano, the collection of instruments from various parts of the world, and there are the little plastic grapes adorning our dresser.

Sam loves to pick off a few of these grapes and then ferry them around his room in his dump truck and his digger. It makes sense; they are the perfect size and roll around satisfyingly. But the choking hazard is a bit too much for either Joy or myself feeling comfortable with his playing with the grapes, so they stay off limits.

This morning in the frenzy for getting ready for church, we left Sam alone upstairs for a little while. When I went to collect him for church, he had five grapes in his digger and was carrying one around in a bottle top. Joy bundled him off down the stairs, reminding him firmly that we don't play with the grapes, while I returned the grapes to their bowl. I overheard him protest that he needed the grapes, telling Joy, "But it is God's special will that I take this grape to church today for Cole to play with."

2 comments:

Andy Forbes said...

And who are you to argue with God's will?

Andrew said...

That's what gave us pause as we were going out the door - who are we to stop Sam from doing God's will? (especially since we often read the story of Samuel's calling to him from the Bible) But a friend at church put it best when she said to tell him, "But God has told us to take care of you and little plastic grapes aren't safe for you or Cole."