Chas may not have one iota of killer instinct on the playing field of any sport. And sometimes, Lord knows, the boy daydreams. He hates to color. Honestly, he's kind of lazy -- he'll spend an hour on a writing assignment trying to figure out how to write something with the fewest, shortest words so he doesn't have to write as much. But he is about as sweet as a boy can get. Sometimes to his detriment.
In his class good behavior and hard work are rewarded with tokens. Every so often, the kids get a chance to spend their tokens. They can spend a few and get a fun-sized candy. Or they can save them and get something bigger, like a toy or a special recess. I've given Chas a hard time because he spends 'em as fast as he earns 'em -- the boy loves candy. But the other day, he came out with two fun-sized candies -- one for him and one for his brother. Pretty sweet. Then I find out that his friends have been asking him to buy them candy with his tokens -- and he's been doing it. This, perhaps is too sweet. He told me the teacher has put a stop to this and they're not allowed to do it anymore, which is probably for the best. He also told me one of his friends bought him candy once, which is nice. But I get the distinct impression that the other kids have figured out he's a soft touch.
I worried a bit about him letting himself be taken advantage of. And it's true, he is. But I think 7 is too young to really let that lesson sink in. At 7, I think I'm just going to be happy my boy likes to share his happiness. So we told him he doesn't have to do that if he doesn't want to but we'll leave it at that. And keep an eye out for when things go too far.
Yes, we said, just go to sleep. Imagine our surprise when, a couple of hours later, we walked down the hallway to go to bed ourselves and found a trail of notes. ...
