Every evening when I put my elementary school-aged daughter to bed, she and I usually spend several minutes talking about what happened at school that day. The other night, my daughter was telling me about the older 4th graders who wouldn’t let her and her friends play on the new jungle gym at school. I asked what did she and her friends do. She replied that they decided they were going to come up with some playground rules for all of the students to follow when playing on the new jungle gym. “Mom?” she asked. “What are some rules we can have for the playground?”
“Well,” I replied, “playground rules usually include something like everyone needs to wait his or her turn. No pushing. No cutting in line.” “Mom?” she interrupted. “What does ‘no cutting in line’ mean?”
I began to explain, “Well, let’s say you, your little brother and I are waiting in line to go down the slide. Your little brother is first in line. I’m second and you’re third. Now let’s say Daddy comes up and stands in front of your little brother and goes first instead of going to the end of the line. That’s cutting in line.”
After my explanation, my daughter got quiet…no doubtly thinking about what I just said. I was lying there feeling pretty good that I had this opportunity to teach her a life lesson about playing nicely together and waiting your turn. And after a minute or two of quiet contemplation, she turned to me and said “But Mom…I don’t want to be third.”
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