Monkey See. Monkey Do.

You know how as a parent you're supposed to be a good example and act how you want your children to act?

That is such a bummer!

Lately I've been especially intrigued with the fact that my kids cannot be made to care about things that have no immediate affect on them. They just don't care. Really. This is very, very bad.

Last week we shared a bit of news with our children. I was expecting an excited response. What I got from 4 year-old, world-weary Cadie Lu was this: "Yeah. I don't really care."

To me that sounded an awful lot like the echo of, "Sorry, sweetie. When I'm done doing the dishes, folding laundry, screaming at your sister, working, changing this diaper, whipping up dinner, then I'll work up the energy to pretend to care about what you're saying."

It was a harsh reality check. Apparently if I don't care about what they have to say, they'll return the favor when I'm trying to share. Monkey see and monkey do.

Lest you think that was my big moment of reflection, I present to you an even harsher moment. When I asked my 6 year-old what her favorite thing to do with me is, her reply was a confused face and "You don't really do anything with us."

Ouch.

Of course, I wanted to reply with this little zinger: I'm too busy doing things FOR you to do anything WITH you.

But,alas, childhood doth fly by...blah, blah, blah.

In the end I suppose I'm going to want to send them out the door equipped to deal with the world at large. And the sad truth is that about 85% of the things people tell them are going to be mind-numbing and tragic. And they are going to have to dig deep, paste a smile on and learn to pretend to care.

And sometimes, they're going to have to not only serve people, but get involved with people in things that are no fun, just so that someone knows they're important to them.

I also suppose that I'm going to have to give them an example of this at home.

Oh, bother. Here goes nothing...