Children at Play: They really do listen.

Just when you think that children aren't paying attention, they do something that lets you know that they do...

Do you remember being six years old and that wonderful pretend play that you so loved to act out?  During the summer my sister and I allow our children to go and visit with each other. She being a "city dweller" and I being a "country dweller", the children love to visit. The cousins constist of the eldest boy, nine; the two girls, six and five (only seven months apart) and the baby boy, a four year old. Upon visiting my house they would swim and play mermaids whilst the pirates captured them or "killed" one of them.

At first I wasn't paying much attention to this until the eldest, my son, pipes up and says do we have to play where one of you dies? He was so over this drama that he refused to play. The girls being whiney and "cry babies" begged and pleaded until the two boys played and "blew up " thier island rock.  I just began to observe and recollect how we used to play as kids and it wasn't that different.

This particular visit my niece and nephew were not going to stay the whole week, they were being picked up by their other grand parents half-way through the week. Friday my sister calls me, she was laughing and says, " I have something funny to tell you."

The other grand-mother had called her telling her she over heard the kids (my niece and nephew) playing downstairs. She could hear the younger one pretending to cry and sob. So she eased a little closer to hear what was going on. He was sobbing and saying, "Oh he's dead, my bear is dead."

The eldest, then called order by saying, "Silence! We are gathered here today to mourn the dead bear. Don't cry my brother, it will all be alright, because I can bring him back to life. I am God!"

So just when you think they don't pay attention to what is being said, they hear much more than we realize.