Wait!

One of the things I have taught our dog to do is to "wait". She is very excited to go for car rides, but our cars are outside. We exit through the garage and she has learned to wait once we hit the garage door opener. At first she will run wildly toward the opening door, but upon hearing me caution her to "wait", all 11 pounds of her skids to a halt. She retraces her steps and walks out to the car with me. She has learned that being careful keeps her safe, and her reward is the coveted ride in the car.

Many parenting checklists cover certain skills our children should master by when in order to function well socially. By fifth grade, one of the things our kids should have learned to do is to wait.

While I completely agree, I think that in technologically microwaveable instant messaging text savvy DVRing Googling North America that is asking a lot for today's Kindergarteners.

They have never known life without a smart phone, microwave, DVR, drive-through Starbucks or take-home pre-cooked dinners from the deli section of Target. Their parents can Google and download coloring pages, craft ideas and get online to read their report cards. They can play games with the tap of a finger on an iPad or the click of a mouse if their family is still so old school as to own a computer that sits at a table. If they really, really need a toy or a book their parents can go to Amazon.com find it and instant click. It will be at the front door - no shipping fees applied - within a day. Unlike babies of bygone eras, they were handed an iPhone to play with while mommy had coffee with friends. Forget those car keys! These kids have grown up technologically far more intuitive than their families (or even older siblings) and have no logical reason to wait for anything.

Yet that is exactly what we must do - teach these incredible kids to do a thing so culturally foreign to them. They must learn to wait.

Waiting will teach patience and respect for others. Waiting will teach unselfishness and self-control. Waiting will teach objectivity, anticipation, preparation and sacrifice. Waiting will teach children about creation and beauty.

You can't plant a seed and get a sunflower right away - you have to watch it grow. While it is growing you can care for it and watch what God created. You can't have a birthday every day, but you can plan a party the month before and have fun counting down and learn what it means to look forward to something out of our control but certainly on the calendar. Where we live many young girls grow their hair out for Locks of Love, then donate their year of work. They had to watch and wait for their hair to be long enough before this non-profit could accept their hair for cancer patients.

Today's parents have a lot of contributing forces that are definitely convenient for family life and are indeed blessings, but if we aren't careful we may turn out a generation of impatient or impersonal people who can't relate face-to-face, manage their finances or everyday lives. I think we have to share our appreciation for what we can "instantly" do or get (like Googling the answer everyone is arguing about as to the average age of a Pony Express rider), yet tempering that by making sure our brainiac can also treat others kindly and with love and have a solid sense of self-control by waiting their turn or saving for that toy.

What if we taught our kids that waiting was fun, not something to be overcome?

I gotta go now, my microwave popcorn is done...