I'm giving the back story here, there will be no cliffs. So if that's a problem for you, tough titty.
Awhile back I arranged to have my son and I volunteer at one of my good customers soup kitchen on Christmas day. My son knew about this well in advance, and to my surprise was all for the idea. Not that I thought he wouldn't be really, but what ten year old kid wants to be out working on Christmas day while his presents sit at home?
Speaking of presents he wanted the Wii this year. After camping out at Target with some friends (another story unto itself) I made that happen for him though he had no clue until this morning. In fact, for the past few weeks I've been taking every chance I could when he mentioned the Wii to tell him his odds of finding a cure for cancer were better. I deemed it demoralizing the kid for the extra benefit on Christmas morning! I'm a sadist like that.
So anyhow, he got his Wii this morning, and without missing a beat was overjoyed. Not spazzy like that one kid on Youtube who got a nintendo for Christmas, just really grateful.
After unwrapping it, without even opening it, he said "Let's go, we have to be at the soup kitchen by nine.". So his Wii sat on the floor untouched and we left.
We got there and our first assigned task was to take a pot of turkey necks (maybe 40) that sat in a pot of water overnight and pull the meat from the bones to make gravy. This was some fear factor shit I tell you. If you've never done this consider yourself lucky.
I tried to hide my urge to dry heave as I breathed through my mouth and smiled and said "This is the fun job, they must've saved it just for us!". Yeah, 10 years old doesn't translate to stupid. He knew better, yet he only mildly protested and went to town with me on those turkey necks. We made a mean pair of turkey neck de-meaters.
The other volunteers gathered around the prep table with us were carving all of the meat off about 20 or so turkeys and looked at us in disbelief. There was a silence while we worked until my son says "Man, this is fun. I'm glad I didn't get stuck just carving a turkey.". Alas, his Tom Sawyer-esque attempt to get them to white wash the fence for him didn't work. They all just laughed. From there he was the life of the party and any other task he did found one of the many volunteers wanting to work with him and ask him questions. He loved getting that attention.
As the morning progressed I watched as he handled everything asked of him like a pro. I backed off and did other things in the hopes of letting him go at this on his own. Not one second was wasted standing around by him. If he finished a task and was waiting on another one to be assigned he picked up a broom instead of standing idle.
So we finally had the food prepped and the people poured in. Everyone I encountered was a pleasure to meet/talk to/deal with. By this time my tasks and my sons tasks differed so much I'd only see him in passing as I took out trash.
At one point he carried around a tray of cookies to the seated diners and asked if they cared for any. If they did he doled out a small handful.
Overall my son had a great time. He worked his little butt off, and I couldn't have been more proud of him. That was until we drove home.
We were chatting during the ride home and he said "Everyone there was so nice......except for the one guy who cussed me out.". I was a bit shocked, and pissed off..."Who?" I said "Was it one of the volunteers or one of the diners?".
He said "One of the diners Dad, but don't worry about it, I had it under control.". At this point I say "You should have let me know so I could have come over and taken care of it" more pissed off that someone he was attempting to help, an adult who should know better, would cuss out a 10 year old.
So I calmed down, realizing in hindsight there was nothing that could be done about it anyhow if I went back, plus he said he handled it, so I was curious as to how.
He explained that as he went around with the tray of cookies handing out one handful per person one guy inparticular demanded a second helping right then and there. He'd been told by the lady who ran the kitchen only one handful per person, but he said to this guy "After everyone gets a chance to get some I'll come back if there's extra.".
This guy then says to him "If one of my little mother fucking kids talked like that to me I'd knock the shit out of them."........
This kicked in my parental protective rage again, but I checked it simply because he said he handled it and even if I went back and said something the guy was already long gone and likely wouldn't be easily identified out of the couple hundred that ate there today.
So.....I asked what he did. He says, "I smiled and made sure everyone else that wanted seconds on cookies got them just so that by the time I got back to him I'd just given out the last ones and there weren't anymore for him.".
While I'm not for him antagonizing indirectly like that I can't say that I blame him. Hell, I'd have done/said worse, so I think he was very diplomatic about the whole thing.
So I realized right then and there that my little man is growing up so so fast. He doesn't need me to fight his battles or always stand up for him. That breaks my heart.....it's a bitter sweet thing to see stuff like this happen.
I encourage you, if you have children, to get off the computer now and play with them, spend time with them, just be with them before they grow up and you look back asking where the time went.
Merry Christmas all....I'm going to play Wii with my son...excuse me, young man!
Awhile back I arranged to have my son and I volunteer at one of my good customers soup kitchen on Christmas day. My son knew about this well in advance, and to my surprise was all for the idea. Not that I thought he wouldn't be really, but what ten year old kid wants to be out working on Christmas day while his presents sit at home?
Speaking of presents he wanted the Wii this year. After camping out at Target with some friends (another story unto itself) I made that happen for him though he had no clue until this morning. In fact, for the past few weeks I've been taking every chance I could when he mentioned the Wii to tell him his odds of finding a cure for cancer were better. I deemed it demoralizing the kid for the extra benefit on Christmas morning! I'm a sadist like that.
So anyhow, he got his Wii this morning, and without missing a beat was overjoyed. Not spazzy like that one kid on Youtube who got a nintendo for Christmas, just really grateful.
After unwrapping it, without even opening it, he said "Let's go, we have to be at the soup kitchen by nine.". So his Wii sat on the floor untouched and we left.
We got there and our first assigned task was to take a pot of turkey necks (maybe 40) that sat in a pot of water overnight and pull the meat from the bones to make gravy. This was some fear factor shit I tell you. If you've never done this consider yourself lucky.
I tried to hide my urge to dry heave as I breathed through my mouth and smiled and said "This is the fun job, they must've saved it just for us!". Yeah, 10 years old doesn't translate to stupid. He knew better, yet he only mildly protested and went to town with me on those turkey necks. We made a mean pair of turkey neck de-meaters.
The other volunteers gathered around the prep table with us were carving all of the meat off about 20 or so turkeys and looked at us in disbelief. There was a silence while we worked until my son says "Man, this is fun. I'm glad I didn't get stuck just carving a turkey.". Alas, his Tom Sawyer-esque attempt to get them to white wash the fence for him didn't work. They all just laughed. From there he was the life of the party and any other task he did found one of the many volunteers wanting to work with him and ask him questions. He loved getting that attention.
As the morning progressed I watched as he handled everything asked of him like a pro. I backed off and did other things in the hopes of letting him go at this on his own. Not one second was wasted standing around by him. If he finished a task and was waiting on another one to be assigned he picked up a broom instead of standing idle.
So we finally had the food prepped and the people poured in. Everyone I encountered was a pleasure to meet/talk to/deal with. By this time my tasks and my sons tasks differed so much I'd only see him in passing as I took out trash.
At one point he carried around a tray of cookies to the seated diners and asked if they cared for any. If they did he doled out a small handful.
Overall my son had a great time. He worked his little butt off, and I couldn't have been more proud of him. That was until we drove home.
We were chatting during the ride home and he said "Everyone there was so nice......except for the one guy who cussed me out.". I was a bit shocked, and pissed off..."Who?" I said "Was it one of the volunteers or one of the diners?".
He said "One of the diners Dad, but don't worry about it, I had it under control.". At this point I say "You should have let me know so I could have come over and taken care of it" more pissed off that someone he was attempting to help, an adult who should know better, would cuss out a 10 year old.
So I calmed down, realizing in hindsight there was nothing that could be done about it anyhow if I went back, plus he said he handled it, so I was curious as to how.
He explained that as he went around with the tray of cookies handing out one handful per person one guy inparticular demanded a second helping right then and there. He'd been told by the lady who ran the kitchen only one handful per person, but he said to this guy "After everyone gets a chance to get some I'll come back if there's extra.".
This guy then says to him "If one of my little mother fucking kids talked like that to me I'd knock the shit out of them."........
This kicked in my parental protective rage again, but I checked it simply because he said he handled it and even if I went back and said something the guy was already long gone and likely wouldn't be easily identified out of the couple hundred that ate there today.
So.....I asked what he did. He says, "I smiled and made sure everyone else that wanted seconds on cookies got them just so that by the time I got back to him I'd just given out the last ones and there weren't anymore for him.".
While I'm not for him antagonizing indirectly like that I can't say that I blame him. Hell, I'd have done/said worse, so I think he was very diplomatic about the whole thing.
So I realized right then and there that my little man is growing up so so fast. He doesn't need me to fight his battles or always stand up for him. That breaks my heart.....it's a bitter sweet thing to see stuff like this happen.
I encourage you, if you have children, to get off the computer now and play with them, spend time with them, just be with them before they grow up and you look back asking where the time went.
Merry Christmas all....I'm going to play Wii with my son...excuse me, young man!
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