Project 52 | four

Metadata: f / 4.5, 1/50 sec, ISO 1600

I posted this Sunday, but without the actual post that followed. Whoops.

So... our sweet, adorable, love-everybody son has dug deep into his boyhood DNA and found a new love. Nerf. Really all weaponry. Shooters (bow/arrows). Bangarang (...anything he can throw and make a huge sound). His Nerf gun his Godfather gave him for Christmas this year. He loves it all.

In light of events that have happened in the news recently (read: school shooting, violence, etc), I was very weary of letting him explore this aspect of growing up. MY adorable blonde kiddo wielding a bow and arrow and fighting the "bad" guys. But who's to determine bad guys and good guys? And what if he gets it mixed up? ...what if he becomes that kid?

And then, of course, my rational husband (and several other level-headed parents in our lives) brought me back to reality. Little boys have been playing cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, superheroes and villains, etc since the dawn of time. Our job as parents is to help him navigate the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the in-between... and oh boy is there a lot of in-between.

As we discover more about our little guy's budding personality, I'm grateful for the reminder that he wants to always be the good guy and that his focus is always on defeating evil. He reminds me when he's done something wrong that he had only forgotten the rules and that he truly is sorry. I remember the days when he discovered what it meant to truly say "I love you" to someone. It's really touching to see his mind understand what it really means to have remorse and want nothing more than to make the things around him better.

So our little moment of truth / lesson for this week includes both letting go so he can explore what is truly good or bad for his own heart, letting him take aim, and then helping him celebrate when he nails it and realize the true goodness in himself. If we decide it for him (what to aim at/what makes him good), it won't stick for very long.

...right after he uses his dragon/"flipper thingy" (catapult) /"puncher"(battering ram) to destroy the castle...