Bryce for those of you that don't know is a brilliant, tallented, quirky, often described as a "hyper" child. He has so much energy, so much abandonment, so much confidence. There are so many things about him that I adore. And there are a few things about him that I cringe at. Along with all the things that I applaud him for are a few things that he inherited from me that I've struggled with my whole life. He has a hard time focusing on "boring" things, he is SUPER forgetful, he loses things often, he does all his schoolwork then turns it in with one question completely unanswered. He's just plain unorganized. But my question is, what's wrong with society that we put these incredibly intelegent children in a box? We fence them in...we make them adhere to our standards, but who are we? I have struggled with this concept since he was a 2-3 years old and his personality started showing. We knew he was smarter than average as a very young child. He was a little "nerdy" (not my words), a little bit on the strange side at times. His dad and I tried to get him to be "normal" due to worrying that he would get made fun of or picked on in school. My thoughts were so mixed - on one hand I have this brilliant, above average kid and I'm encouraging him to play baseball and "fit in". That is just plain stupid! Shame on me! Shame on us all to think that there is a norm that we have to adhere to. He is perfect the way he is! I get extra frustrated with him because of his unorganization. Let me paint you a picture: we are in the line for school and instead of getting his backpack on he is talking about his favorite kind of turtle and why they're so cool and what they can do and how long they live (yes run on sentence style) and guess what I do? I encourage it! I'm asking questions - I'm acting like it's the coolest thing I've heard! Why? Because it is!!! I love hearing him talk about things that I have no clue about! A 7 year old teaching a 31 year old things? YES! That's cool! But as we approach the drop off area we are not ready - then we're grabbing backpacks and lunch bags and trying to unlock doors as a line of cars are behind us probably poised and ready to bolt for school.
I watched a little bit of a movie tonight (thus the inspiration for writing) called Yours Mine And Ours. Basically the movie is about a widower and a widow who have 10 & 8 kids a piece. The woman in the movie is a handbag designer and is the definition of carefree. Her children can paint when and where they want, they play instruments, they dance, they are just as carefree as she is. Then the man in the movie is an admiral in the military and is as controlled and precise as they come. They start dating, fall in love and they have to blend their lifestyles. I wish it was that easy! Blending the two worlds and making one happy mix. Easier said than done... As I was watching the woman with her children so carefree and fun I felt guilty, I felt ashamed. I felt like I had snubbed the fire out of my child. Bryce is just perfect the way that he is! If I had to say one thing to me 5 years ago I would say Embrace it! Embrace him exactly as he is! He will find friends that are just like him! So what if it's in math club - so what if it's at science camp. I LOVE that he's such an individual. I love that he knows what he's interested in and most of the time it's reading or science. Shame shame shame on me! Let him BE! Ok - I'm listening to myself now! ;)
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