Yesterday, I woke up to find Benji standing by my bed, fully dressed for school, holding up a sandwich in a ziploc bag. "Look Mommy!" he said. "Benji, why are you giving me a sandwich?" I groggily asked. "I'm not giving it to you, I'm showing it to you. I made it myself." he said. I said that was great and he went back downstairs. I was surprised to realize that Aaron was still in bed, because I assumed at first that Aaron must have helped get Benji up and started on his morning. It turns out that Benji got himself up and dressed for school without any prompting!
I was really happy when I realized this, because Benji has been surprisingly resistant to doing things for himself (even things he's perfectly capable of) and I've wanted to address this for a while. My mother did a great job of teaching me and my brother to be self-sufficient and I definitely want to pass that along to the kids.
A few minutes later, Benji was back upstairs. He proudly announced that he had made his entire lunch, "organized" it to fit into his lunch box, then put the lunch box into his backpack. We checked it out and he had done a great job. I was afraid he would have packed all treats, or only his favorite foods, but he had made a normal sandwich, packed it in a ziploc, and assembled a normal, balanced lunch with a drink, a piece of fruit, a pack of crackers, a yogurt, and a spoon.
The only issue was that he had packed himself an entire mango, not realized that it's usually not eaten as hand fruit like an apple or orange. I cut some mango cubes into a container for him and wrote "OUTSTANDING" on his hand in big letters with a "tattoo marker" (i.e. non-toxic and washable) so he would remember it all day and be proud of himself. For once, there was no arguing and nagging and reminding involved in getting him out the door on time.
I have no idea where this new attitude came from, but I like it!
--Victoria
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