This boy– this one right here– is currently scooting waaay close to my very last nerve.
He’s impulsive.
He makes poor choices.
He’s loud.
He lacks self-control.
He’s pushy.
He tattles.
He’s picky.
He doesn’t listen worth a whit.
In other words, he’s a perfectly healthy six year-old boy testing every limit and boundary ever set in place for the safety and happiness of his own person.
I’ve done this before, so I know that it —he— turns out o.k. in the end. He will shed the squirrely, too-tight skin of the little boy and come out fresh, new, and slighty wiser as a seven-year old who can see a little farther than ten seconds down the road. He will learn that it’s better to eat what Momma puts on your plate than whine for something else and go hungry. He will learn that racing to be first is always a ticket to being held back as the last. He’ll start figuring out how to harness his tongue, and his temper– although I can’t say he’ll have that under control in this lifetime, if he’s anything like the rest of this fallen species of man.
Let’s be honest– six year-old boys are a royal pain. They are neither big nor little. You can’t expect too much of them, or they’ll fall apart. But you can’t let them slide with too little responsibility, or those idle hands will find work to do. And yet– they are one of my favorite little creatures on earth. Earnest. Sincere. Brave. Passionate. Loving. Curious.
If you have a six year-old boy in your life, hug him close. Before you know it, he will be 10, or 12, or 16– and all of those hair-pulling, maddening moments will be a memory, yes. But so will the missing teeth, and the awe at discovering new words, and the ability to run himself out and, at the end of the day, need to be carried to his bed, head lolling.
John Mark is driving me nuts, yes. But it’s a good kind of nuts. It’s the kind of nuts I’ll look back on when I’m 85, sipping my tea, and remember: “Once I had a little, brown-eyed boy we called Jem, and oh, what a stinker he was. But oh, how we loved him.”
My son is only 2, buy my daughter just–JUST–turned 6. And I cannot even begin to tell you how much this calmed and encouraged me. 🙂