Kids today seem so different than the kids I knew growing up in the 70’s. I realize that makes me sound old enough to wear knee-high stockings and a plastic hair cover, but it’s true.

Most recently, I’ve taken notice of their “can do” attitude. Having been brought up in an era when they don’t keep score at soccer games, when every kid gets a trophy at the end of softball season, and when computer games tell you it’s okay to lose…kids today receive an incredible amount of affirmation.

Yesterday my nine year old daughter had a friend over, and I had a back window open so I could hear them playing in the yard.

Apparently they were attempting to do something with a degree of risk, because I heard my daughter’s friend say, “You can do it! Believe in yourself! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!!”

I couldn’t help but flash back to when I was nine and had just watched my friends swing across a ravine on a rickety vine. They were all waiting for me on the other side, and when they swung the vine back to me, I got nervous and hesitated. But, instead of saying, “You can do it”, they said, “Come on! Hurry up, you pansy!”

Maybe, just maybe, things are changing for the better.

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My five year old son has a game he likes to play, where he runs up our steps and I run after him trying to pinch him. We do it whenever we’re both going upstairs. I created this method to get him in the vicinity of the bathtub, without any struggle.

But, please take my advice. Before you consider implementing this pinching game, you should also consider that your child may one day run down the main aisle at Target, look over his shoulder and loudly shout, “Hey Mom!! Come get me, and pinch my butt!”

Just hypothetically…

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My husband and I were talking about what a hard time he’s going to have when our daughter gets older, and boys start paying her attention. To put it mildly, her Daddy won’t come off as kind and gentle to her suitors.

I relayed this information to my nine year old daughter and said, “I feel sorry for the guys you’re going to have in your life. It won’t be easy for them, or for you.”

To which she replied, “It’s really okay, Mom. I’m not worried about it…I plan on being a widow.”

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As practicing Catholics, it is customary for our family to genuflect when entering, and when leaving our pew at church. This means we bend the left knee and touch our right knee to the floor in the direction of the tabernacle.

This morning when Mass ended, I told my daughter she could go say hello to a friend as I stayed behind to talk to someone. I thought my son had followed his sister.

I soon learned otherwise, when I finished my conversation and turned to see my boy attempting to start a parish-based aerobics class. He was genuflecting at each and every pew on the way to the door.

For a split second I considered whether or not I should claim he was mine, when the woman in front of me turned to her husband and said, “Look at that kid doing lunges.”

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