The Lecture

Unfortunately for my kids, my husband and I are both good at the lecture. I'm not certain that this is the best parenting technique... I'm pretty sure they may zone out after a while. But sometimes, you just need to set some people (your kids, or at least one of them) straight. That's what happened here this morning.

The conversation started innocently enough, as they so often do. I was explaining to the two younger boys that I was hoping we could build an office for their dad out in our garage, which is a huge detached garage and fitting for such a thing. Of course, there's the small (or not so small) matter of money... but a girl can dream and pray, right? I mean, otherwise, there is just nowhere for this kid to go. But Son2, who has been making a habit of complaining lately, was highly annoyed to realize that this meant his little brother or sister would immediately have their own room. Son2 has never had his own room, and he wants one, and he lets us know it from time to time. "It's unfair!" he proclaimed.

And so the lecture began. (In my defense, let me say that I probably wouldn't have launched into a lecture if there hadn't been a number of complaints already this week, displaying a profound lack of gratitude on his part.) It was a lecture about financial reality and about poverty, and the truth of how most of the world lives. Whole families share rooms. I explained that he rarely sees this reality, that what he sees is the people who have more than we do, who go to Disneyworld every year, or at least go once. I even explained that many fortunate people don't actually have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars each year for health insurance and doctor visits and medicine. But we do, and at least we can go to the doctor and get medicine, even if it doesn't always stop those migraines from coming. At least we can keep working on it. Some kids can't even go to the doctor, can't afford their medicine. I couldn't stop. Well...that's not true. I could, and I did, eventually. But before I did, I told him that maybe this fall, as part of homeschooling, we would do a study about poverty (that was my husband's idea). We'd learn about how many of the people in our country have to live, how people in this world suffer. And then we'll just see what's fair.