Mother May I: You know, a young child’s brain is akin to a sponge. The little ones soak up information at an astonishing rate.
There are many things a child must learn. Two of the most important being the language and human nature.
Many words must be learned and some, because they don’t normally arise in conversation, the child still doesn’t know until they are a bit older. I remember one evening when my older daughter, Lisa, was about eleven and the Vietnam War was being bitterly contested. Lisa had watched national news and then looked at me and said, “Daddy, why are they using gorillas to fight?” I had to explain to her that they were not “gorillas,” they were “guerrillas.” Then, of course, I had to explain guerrillas.
Besides learning words, the interpretation of phrases must also be learned. When I was very young, I heard the old hymn that goes “Faith of our Fathers, Living still …” I reckoned that “Fathers” being next to “Living still” plus the fact I was not old enough to understand that ideas could “live,” I assumed I was okay. My Daddy was alive.
Human nature is a tough one at any age. When I was about four, the other neighborhood children allowed me to play some games with them. One of the games was “Mother, May I?” It took me a bit of time to figure it all out. I would be a “baby step” away from winning and, suddenly, I would be way, way back. Why didn’t I ever win? Well, it finally hit me, “Mother” ruled the game and an older child always won.
