Running Away

The other night we took the kids for a drive. Jordan and the boys had been sick and everyone needed out of the house. We made a big deal of it and stopped for ice cream, so five minutes later when the sugar started setting in, the kids were talking a mile a minute.

All of a sudden, up piped Asher, with no reference to anything we'd been talking about.

"I'm running away!".

And as quickly as I said "Where are you running to Ash?", Rio said "Ashy why would you be running away? You can't run".

The car got silent. I said "Ri...." and then looked to Jordan for advice.

Was it ok to reprimand her? She shouldn't be in trouble for stating a fact, but it's a pretty insensitive fact. Does a 6 year old who happens to be one of the most sensitive people I know understand what insensitive means? No.

So Jordan, in all of his wisdom responded "Rio, you need to think about what you say".

Message was received without any further discussion. The next thing out of her mouth was "Ashy where are you running to?" and when he said "the city" they talked the remainder of the trip home about all of the places in the city he could be running to.

Later when I brought it up with Rio, she knew. She didn't need an explanation about what she had said, she understood.

She's six. She's learning. And she's doing a pretty good job of it. It's a never ending learning curve for all of us.