Responsibility

David as he says is Big 4; meaning he'll be 5 in less than a month. So along with him becoming a true "big-boy" I've been thinking about different types of responsibilities for him. Dan and I both like the idea of each kid having age-appropriate chores. We believe this will help them learn to be responsible, and to experience that feeling of a job well done.

As I laugh at my noble-sounding words above, let me tell you about our first step into this whole responsibility thing - it was a FAILURE, LOL. On Friday I took David to PetSmart and the "fish dr." helped us pick out the best and easiest and hardly no care, blah, blah - fish. It was a Beta fish. So David picks out two females. The lady squats down to his level looks him in the eye and goes over the basic care requirements. He is really listening. Then she gives me the detailed sheet and we pick out a bowl and some rocks and we're on our way. We get home and "move" the fish into their new home. Looks great - they're swimming around, seemingly happy. David decides to name them Sandy and Pearl (characters from SpongeBob) and we officially have two new pets. David and I talked more about the big responsibility and he told me what he was supposed to do - he remembered the "fish dr." telling him. I'm thinking this will be great for him. Then Saturday Pearl is dead and Sunday Sandy is dead. You know why - my responsible son followed all the "fish-care" things to the letter, but it never occurred to the "fish dr." or me to tell him we don't PET fish!!