Must Do A Little Bragging...

...about my oldest son. He was once on the path to being a full-fledged brat. Not through any fault of his own, mind you. He was born to two morons that thought they knew more than they did. (well, at least one of his parents is a moron anyway; I thought I knew EVERYTHING I needed to know about parenting. That is, until we started home with him. I yelled at Mark to drive more safely)

Being the firstborn he was an only child for a few years. Being the only child meant that he got the full, undivided attention of his parents. He also pretty much had the full, undivided wallets of his parents. If he asked for something, he got it. Until one day, at my grandfather's house. We went over there pretty much everyday while Mark was at work. One day, out of the blue, Nathaniel noticed a teapot. It was probably the only thing that he had never played with in the whole house. It was not even a real teapot;it was a planter. My uncle had given a plant to my grandmother before she died. It came in a cute little teapot shaped planter. The plant had outgrown the pot, but he had the teapot sitting on a baker's rack. Nathaniel decided he wanted to play with it. Not a good idea since he was a destructo-boy. Oh, and the teapot was glass. So he started by asking over and over. Then came the whining. Then crying. I finally had to take him home screaming "I WANT PAW-PAW'S TEAPOT!!!!" over and over and OVER.

He finally (after a week or so) learned that NO is a real word. We started making little changes here and there and using "No" more often. Don't get me wrong, it was not an easy overnight thing. He has, however, grown into a wonderful young man. One night last week we went to the Gadsden Mall for a little Chinese food. While we were still at our table a man with a cane went up to the counter to order some food. As he was paying, he dropped his cane. Mark and Benjamin were heading for a store while Samuel finished up his food. So I asked Nathaniel to go help the man. He did it. Just marched right over, bent down and handed it to the man. He has gone from being a a hard-headed little stubborn kid who cried for days over being told no, to a sweet fellow that helps others. Are there times where I just want to thump him? Yes, although I fight the urge. The times where he plays with his little brothers, even if he would rather be doing something else, or he participates in a church play, even though he does not want to, or the times where he just puts others first, is enough to melt this mean old mama's heart.