{"id":34089,"date":"2021-05-17T19:32:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T00:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=34089"},"modified":"2021-05-17T19:44:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T00:44:29","slug":"connection-with-a-child-can-make-routine-day-feel-more-meaningful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=34089","title":{"rendered":"Connection with a child can make routine day feel more meaningful"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the little boy struggled to run toward me, his mother seemed a bit embarrassed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d<\/em> she said, \u201cbut he seems to want to come to you. I don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Her 2-year-old son ran to me with his little arms extended and I reached down to pick him up. His mother smiled as she realized that I wasn\u2019t bothered by her son\u2019s eagerness for attention. As the toddler threw his arms around my neck and hugged me tightly, I told her that I found her son delightful.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know why this little boy was so eager to see me. He and his mother had just arrived to look at a home that I was showing to them. He had certainly never seen me before. But he wanted my attention \u2014 and I was delighted to give it to him.<\/p>\n

The meeting was only a few minutes. There wasn\u2019t really anything of lasting importance about it. But as I look back over my day Monday, those are the only minutes that stand out as enjoyable and meaningful.<\/p>\n

I still haven’t had children of my own, but I really want them. Something about helping to create children and then raising them to be fully independent and successful adults seems immensely satisfying to me.<\/p>\n

But even without children of my own, there’s something deeply emotional to me about connecting with these little humans. I know some childless people who enjoy spending limited time with children simply because they’re cute or fun. They see them almost as a form of brief entertainment.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing really wrong with that, but it’s different for me. I almost prefer the times when such children aren’t at their best — when they’re cranky or upset or unhappy. Anybody can enjoy time with a cute child who’s being fun and happy.<\/p>\n

But there’s something special about being able to take care of a child when things aren’t so happy and cute. For me, there’s meaning in being able to be a small part of the process of helping this tiny human being make the long transition to mature adulthood — and helping them get through their worst times is an under-appreciated part of that process.<\/p>\n

As the little boy looked around the house with his mother, he got too excited and wanted to run around. The mother wouldn’t let him run loose in an unfamiliar house — with a stranger’s things — and he didn’t understand that.<\/p>\n

Before long, he was whining and then crying that someone was telling him, “No.”<\/em><\/p>\n

His mother apologized for the way he was acting, but it didn’t really bother me. He was acting exactly as a normal 2-year-old has to act. He’s still learning what limits are. He doesn’t like those limits and he’s pushing back against them. He wouldn’t be a normal child if we didn’t see that side of him.<\/p>\n

The boy and I had a few more interactions before they left. To anybody else, there was nothing important about them. But it all felt meaningful to me.<\/p>\n

I’ll quickly forget about this little boy. He will almost certainly not remember me. But I like to think I played a tiny part in his development. By the time he becomes a mature adult, he will have encountered hundreds or thousands of strangers along the way. Every one of us will have played a tiny role in determining the sort of man he becomes.<\/p>\n

And no matter how tiny my role was, I played a little part in his life today. That feels as though it mattered.<\/p>\n

As he and his mother were leaving, he toddled to the back door of the car, where his mom was about to strap him into a car seat. He suddenly turned around and smiled at me and waved with his fingers.<\/p>\n

“Goodbye, little man,”<\/em> I smiled to myself. “I’m so happy that I got to meet you.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the little boy struggled to run toward me, his mother seemed a bit embarrassed. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she said, \u201cbut he seems to want to come to you. I don\u2019t know why.\u201d Her 2-year-old son ran to me with his little arms extended and I reached down to pick him up. His mother smiled as Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-8RP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34089"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34097,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34089\/revisions\/34097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}