But in remembering it gave me the opportunity to teach my children something very close to my heart and important in my family.
It's tricky to get the meaning across to young children for two reasons, it's a complex abstraction and they have very short attention spans. Remaining true to myself I had no doubt I could teach them this in an afternoon, a short one. My self belief is unshakable until shaken. My daughter (2) knows she played with red glitter and saw daddy in a photo. My son (4) may have stored, although possibly misfiled three or four keywords and knows he coloured in, in the lines.
Briefly, which is so difficult for me I'm going to bullet point it:
- Printed one easy & one standard colouring in picture of a poppy
- Sat on floor and told them today is a Special Day
- Called Remembrance Day, because we remember today
- We remember all the people who have ever kept us safe (from chat forum, thanks)
- We remember birthdays with cake, Easter with eggs and today with a flower called a poppy
"Do we have poppies in the garden mom?"
"No."
"Why?"
- They coloured their poppies in
- Sat on floor again and looked at photo of daddy in uniform, in the bush – radio, rifle, the whole shebang
- Looked at daddy's grandfather's medals
- You get a medal for being very, very, very (can repeat up to 20 times for emphasis, they do) brave
Then I did a very quick recap on why the day was special, and my son asked why daddy was different. Ha! They (read: he) gets it. I am vindicated. I am a super mom, a hero of the cause, champion of the 'boys'.
Pleased, I asked: Different because he was a soldier? Yes. I told him lots of daddys were and are soldiers and we are very proud of them. We are very proud of daddy.
I felt chuffed and triumphant and asked: So, what do you think?
Simultaneously:
"Can we go ride our bikes now?"
"Wee-wee."
What a lovely piece, Kerrin.
ReplyDeleteAnnie