I Wonder If Inept Drivers Can Play Kazoos?!

Ever since Kyle, our extraordinary grandson, was born, we have noticed that he has always been ahead of his age in strength and intelligence.  I know, I know...everyone thinks that their grandchildren are exceptional....and that's the way it should be, because they are!  It's just that Kyle seems to be able to do things that most children his age and size wouldn't and shouldn't normally be able to do.  The other night he moved his rocking chair in front of the television so he could see better....this isn't just any child's rocking chair, it's very sturdy, a bit larger than most and very heavy.  I have trouble moving it when I vacuum.  Not that I can't...but I don't pick it up and move it a couple feet off the ground...it's more like an elevated scoot.  Kyle, though grunting a bit while doing so, moved it a few feet from where it was sitting to a place in front of the Television.  Since he's only 2 and almost 1/2 I was amazed!!   I am amazed at a lot of thing; many of them are not Kyle related.....and not all of them are amazing in an awestruck kind of way.  For instance, I am amazed at many drivers in this area!  Some of them couldn't figure out how a 4-way stop works if their life depended on it...of course some of them can't figure out how stop lights work either!

Tonight Crystal came home from a birthday party for one of our friend's son who is turning 2.  Kyle had gotten a Kazoo at this party...and was serenading us as he came through the door.  I didn't pay much attention at first to what he had, until he came upstairs to say hi and starting playing his kazoo.  Now I know that a Kazoo is simply an instrument that magnifies your own voice and adds a buzzing sound to it (which many people find more annoying than anything)....but it can work really well if it's done right....and by right I  mean if it's done at all.  He had figured out how to use this instrument and while you wouldn't think that it's that difficult, you'd be surprised at how many school age children who can't figure out how to make them work.  I am referring to the time I worked in another building in the after school care program in which the children were given prizes for games like Bingo or rewards for various things that they should be doing just because it is a reasonable expectation of them.  I am talking things like cleaning up after themselves when they make a mess...such as eating their snacks....sweeping up their own mess should not merit a reward.....it's called being responsible for your own actions....cleaning up a game and putting it away should not merit a reward.....in our house, if you don't clean it up you don't play with it the next time...there's the reward....you get to play with it again!  It should be a given...you make a mess, you clean it up!   Rewards should be given to children who do things that are above and beyond what is expected!  If a child is told to clean up a mess they themselves made and they immediately ask, "Can I get something from the prize box?"  There is a problem...you might just as well reward them for making the mess to begin with...

"Oh look Jimmy....you made a mess...WOW! and what a fine mess it is, you just go and get yourself something from the prize box, because that's an award winning mess if I ever saw one...and while you are at it, pick out something for breathing too...because you are just so darn good at it!"  

Of course, when Jimmy goes to get a prize from the box, he can't figure out what to get because he's already gotten several of each item in there for various messes he made, cleaned up and good breathing, but eventually he digs to the bottom of the box and finds a couple of kazoos that either had been added because they were found in a cupboard somewhere or no one else wanted them, mostly because they were "broken".  It amazes me how many kids returned the kazoos because they were defective....yep....they blew into them and they didn't make any noise..so they must be broken.  When told how they actually work, some will take them, but most don't because finding out you have to add your own audio is just to much work!   Imagine the same kids who can't be quiet when the request to do so is given, to the point of having to blow a whistle to bring some kind of order to the room, finds a kazoo and the need to manually add your own audio to make it work is just too much effort!  To be honest, some of them just can't coordinate making noise and blowing at the same time!  Oh, but if they ever do we would have to give them another prize, because the effort of manually making a toy work is just so above and beyond what they should have to expect from a toy...even a toy that was given to them for breathing in and out to begin with!  I am not saying kids are dumb.....on the contrary....they are probably so smart that a kazoo is just to primitive for them.  But isn't it sad that we have become a society of rewarding people/kids for things that should just be common practice.  We have taken the reward of clapping for our toddler children when they accomplish something noteworthy way past the limits and we haven't stopped as they get older. Thus, I give you the "ME" generation! Probably explains why no one wants to wait their turn at stop signs...Ironically, they were probably the kid in school who whined the most about other kids "Cutting" them in line!