I've just decided that "goddess" makes everything sound better. I think I'll begin to use it more often-cooking goddess, laundry goddess, toilet bowl cleaning goddess. Okay, so maybe not everything.
So we have new neighbors. They're pretty good neighbors, although I get annoyed that they park in front of our house. Every. Single. Day.
I get that it's a public street and I understand that I shouldn't really be annoyed. And yet I am. I think part of it is that we don't really know them at all but were super friendly with the guy that lived there before. The other part is that he never parked in front of our house.
They went on vacation the other day and asked us to get their mail and asked if M would water the plants they have on their porch. They have a lot of plants. A lot. I'm not sure how they keep them all alive but I'm impressed. Of course, I'm not sure how much weight that holds coming from a person that once killed a cactus.
So when they asked the hubby they said they would pay M for the watering. He took that as an opportunity to teach her the value of work and asked her if she wanted to water and told her she might get paid.
She was very responsible and had a blast taking care of the plants. Seriously, she wanted to do it like ten times a day. Of course, her fascination doesn't really surprise me - the child has never lived in a house with a live plant until about 6 months ago. And it's alive because it belongs to my husband.
The neighbors returned from vacation today. I knew because they were parked in front of our house.
The husband met us in the driveway and came over a minute later to get the mail. He brought us some maple syrup (they went to Canada) and tried to hand me a wad of cash for the plants. I refused, telling him it's just what neighbors do.
After he left my husband came around the corner acting confused. He disagreed with my refusal of the money because he felt like M worked for it. And yes, she did.
His perspective is that it's important for her to learn to work hard and she should understand there's a reward for hard work. And I can see that point.
My point is that it is equally important to teach her that we do nice things without expectations of reward, simply because it's the right thing to do.
It's amazing how our perspectives are shaped by our backgrounds and how that translates into our values. My husband values taking initiative and a good work ethic and I value helping others and making a difference. But I think it's good - my hope is that our kids will have a healthy dose of both. I want them to work extra hard. At making the world a better place.
And just in case you're worried that the little gardener got cheated - she didn't. Her Daddy is going to pay her. I might encourage her to buy her own plant. And I'll even promise not to touch it.
No comments:
Post a Comment