Tuesday, November 20, 2001

As another round of student teacher conferences comes and goes it would seem that I owe my youngest daughter an apology. I have unfairly pigeonholed this child as an evil genus when nothing could be farther from the truth. Maggie has the most raw intelligence of any of the kids but that doesn’t help her socialize. I think part of my original problem was the fact that I am the eldest and had no empathy for her situation. I never had to fight for attention because I always had a little brother that was willing to do whatever I wanted. Moreover, when his big brother worship wore off he made a convenient punching bag for those days when the world seemed a bit much to handle. I’m oversimplifying but you get the idea. I’m just now figuring out that the second child has a tougher road than I had previously assessed. From my vantage point, I plowed the way for everything Sammy got away with. I wasn’t delicate about pushing my boundaries, more like a jackhammer through jello. There is no way in hell I could have followed someone like myself through school. Who would want to be the big funny kids little brother? Certainly not Sammy who was embarrassed by half the crap I did. (until he grew wise enough to fully appreciate my humor) I don’t even think I could have been as smart as Sam was because he actually learned from some of my mistakes. He even managed to make a few of his own that didn’t occur to me at the time. All this being said Maggie has a different problem. Katie is plowing a path of goodness and light. Kate is not perfect by any means but put her in a room with fifty strangers and come back in half an hour and she will have twenty of them playing tag. Maggie in that same room might just be ready to single out her first target after three hours of careful deliberation. I need to spend more time interacting with Mag. Time that Katie just didn’t need from me. I am seeking wisdom on this one wherever I can find it. At least I caught my mistake early; maybe this will save her some expensive couch time down the road. She needs to come into her own quickly though because it won’t be too long before she’s the older sister of that big kid in diapers whose mom packs a bottle in his lunch every day. (Liza doesn’t want her baby to grow up.) 12:00:00 AM    says you