A Proud Parent

A Proud Parent

By Allan Olson

Once in a while, a child does something a parent is really proud of instead of truly frustrated by.

Last month when we attended my parent’s church back home, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before.

When church was over, the few members of this small (in size, not spirit) community church gathered downstairs for the monthly pot-luck dinner, and I noticed Nikolai and Marcus both running around trying to help set the tables and whatever else they were asked to do.

Not thinking much of it, I resumed visiting and helping keep an eye on our girls, who were busy as always in their own little worlds.

Soon, the meal was over. Nikolai took care of his plate and soon was removing others as well.

My wife and I started looking at some older candid pictures hanging on the walls from times gone by. We were and watching and listening for the three youngest, and when it was time to go, I went looking for Nikolai.

Since the church isn’t that big, it didn’t take long to find him. He was in the kitchen, helping with the dishes.

Later, out of curiosity, I asked him why he was helping.

“I was bored,” he said. “There wasn’t anything else to do.”

When he’s “bored” at home, he doesn’t just randomly start doing dishes or other chores. Nonetheless, I was pretty impressed.

Another more recent event occurred at school.

Since he’s hit the third grade level, he now is subject to the state standard testing. I was curious about how he was going to do. His teacher wasn’t concerned. “He’ll do fine,” she said.

When I asked him about it a few weeks prior to the test, Nikolai admitted he was a little concerned. The teacher also assured him he would be fine.

On test day, he didn’t appear to have a care in the world. It was just another day at school.

When I picked him up from school that afternoon, I learned that his teacher had been correct. He passed the test easily and, according to the teacher, could’ve scored even better if he would have slowed down just a bit.

Of course, not only was I proud that he passed, but impressed that he willingly skipped recess to finish the test in one day. I know I wouldn’t have.

Tentatively, he’s decided that he is going to re-take the math portion of the test to see if he can improve his score, but even if he doesn’t, his parents are happy either way. Hopefully, he will be able to do the same for the reading test later this month.

As for our weekend – it was largely spent outside, enjoying the warm sunshine.

Saturday morning we visited some ponies, one of which is Nikolai’s (a long story for another day), and then later in the day returned home. That evening the kids and I cleaned up a couple pile of leaves left from last fall. The kids played in them for a while and then we put them in the fire pit. I piled it too high, and many of the leaves were damp, so I had to clean some of them out to get a fire going properly for roasting marshmallows.

Nikolai was dispatched to find my spade. It wasn’t in the garage where I left it last fall. “I remember where it is,” he said, and ventured out toward his fort in the woods. He was gone so long I thought he got lost, except that we could hear him (and almost see him). He finally returned with my shovel. What was it doing out in the woods and, after looking at it, I wanted to know how long it had been out there, since all the finish had worn off the shovel.

He confessed that he and his cousins had taken it out there (the exact time frame unknown) and failed to bring it back.

I looked at him and said, “Please don’t run off with my stuff and then not put it back to where it belongs.” Suddenly, I was sounding just like my father. Huh.

We spent Sunday outside again, and supper was consummated over an open fire, roasting hot dogs and brats. Mmmm-mm.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week. Remember – watch out for school buses on the road. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.