“I {know} deep in my heart that God designed me, as a mother, to be at home with my children. To even think of settling for something else would be to step out of His will. No matter how difficult the homeschooling lifestyle might become, my commitment {is} to do God’s will, not my own. Even though I could selfishly choose an ‘easier’ lifestyle, I would have to disobey God to do so. I know in my heart that God has called me to homeschool…”
Sally Clarkson
Yes, that. With that comes our trip to the Florida Aquarium. My mommy friends and I thought that we picked a good day to go being a Tuesday morning, however when we arrived we quickly realized that the decision was not that wise. We were seeing the big yellow school buses and mounds of children coming out to go explore the Aquarium. There were hundreds of kids, but we trucked along. Each of use pushing the second borns in their strollers. It was loud, but the kids had great time.
Lessons learned from son and mother on how to deal with older children pushing and shoving these three out of the way, and Luk being the most vocal out of the group! (side note: the boy in the red was not the one that did the pushing. I don't want this sweet boy to get a bad rep. =D)
Lessons learned on how important it is to have an objective to these trips like a scavenger hunt.
Lessons learned that when a friend is sick and not able to join in on the fun that he is remembered and missed! Each wanting to take a photo just for him.
Lessons learned that as friends: they want to help each other explore and learn!
Lessons learned that after learning can come the fun in the sun.
That even the smallest in the groups seeks to find new challenges!
Lessons learned that after some play the learning continues.
The questions asked and the answers given are just the beginning and forever of our lives in this journey.
The trip was not seamless as Luk is vocal about when things happen to him. In two situations that day Luk was pushed, shoved, and hit by children that were in groups from the schools. They were older and bigger. We talked that day and today about how Jesus was beaten and killed by people that were mean, jealous, and scared. We talked about how we may not understand why they treat us in the manner that they do, but that's important that we reflect Christ and what he did. LOVE.
I watched to see what Luk's responses were. In first incident at the otter exhibit, he was taken aback and just watched in shock that he was pushed. He pouted and waited. Then when the left, I nudged him to go back up to look. The second situation occurred in the line for him and one of his friends to touch the star fish and other sea creature. The entire group just pushed their way through even the adult with them. I think I stood in shock as this woman just watched as they did that Luk and said nothing. I waited to see Luk. Me just staying silent so that my anger towards them wouldn't come out. He said, "HEY! You pushed me!" The three out of the four boys just ignored and snickered at him, while one of the boys said, "I didn't see you." Luk just looked and pouted. That boy kept looking back at Luk while his other friends tried to turn him around and talk with him. He had a concern for the way Luk felt, while the others ignored the "little boy." As the adult looked on, I asked Luk and his friend to come on the other side of the stroller to separate the two groups. I made eye contact with the "chaperone" (whatever that means), and gave her a look of irritation and I'm sure the angered showed.
There were a few things that I thought about at this time:
(1) I am glad that I didn't have someone chaperoning my son during that time because I created a teaching moment when it was over. While the three of the boys got away with being mean to a five year old, and one boy not sure how to feel left with no answers.
(2) It gave me a time to observe how Luk will respond to conflict. I'm not sure if his reaction was best, but I am also not sure as to what I was suppose to say. I can only hope that is a correct correction, and that it was better than sitting idly by like the other adult in this story.
(3) Luk quickly forgot about the issues, and he had fun the rest of the day.
Sigh... it broke my heart to see Luk get pushed around. He did get hit in the face. What was the hardest thing about it was seeing those boys not care and that "an older person who accompanies young people at a social gathering to ensure proper behavior" was not doing her job. It made me notice that this year Luk would be going into Kindergarten and he would walking the halls with boys that age... and "chaperones" that will not be doing their part.
I think it is important for me to note that this in NO means is saying that I want to shelter Luk, but rather that the situation and his learning after the situation was MY responsibility.
"They emphasized character, not conformity."
No, we will not conform to that behavior because that is what your friends are doing. No, we will not conform to the world and the way that others think we should act. No, we are not of this world! For Luk and Logan to know what it means to be of the world, they have to see it! We chose to NOT conform, but to grow and be like Christ. We are called to love. As I told Luk, Jesus loved those that killed Him. It may be hard; It may be painful, but Luk, you are to love those that are mean to you. Those boys will only see a boy that showed love and pain.
At the end of the day there was more character building learning than what this momma expected, but there was a wonderful amount learned beyond that for me. I end with Luk's scavenger hunt sheet:
I'm sorry those two incidents marred an otherwise great field trip. It's always hard to know what to do in a situation like that. I've found that making sure to talk about what happened afterwards is a good way to process for both kids and mama.
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