While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt
It had been a tradition for my husband to give me a box of Nutchos chocolates at Christmas. They don’t make them anymore, but at the time, they were delicious: a swirly mound of milk chocolate filled with ground nuts.
In one of my “woe is me” moments, facing the first Christmas after my husband and I had separated, I moaned and asked who was going to buy me my Nutchos that year.
Days later, I took the kids to the local department store and handed them money so they could do their own Christmas shopping. They had been instructed to stay together, and we had a set time and place to meet before we headed home.
A short time later I saw the kids lugging their purchases. It made me smile to see their excitement with their first foray into holiday shopping. But as we walked home, I saw one of my son’s purchases hanging out of his bag.
It seemed that instead of using the money for gifts, he had spent the money on a huge bag of Doritos or some sort of junk food for himself. I was annoyed, thinking that was not the giving holiday spirit I was trying to teach him.
“Why did you buy chips?” I asked. “That money was for gifts for the family, not for you to buy yourself a snack.”
He looked at me, his sad eyes looking hurt, holding back tears. “They’re not for me,” he said. “They’re for you. You wanted to know who was going to buy you your nachos, and I wanted to make sure you got some.”
Nutchos… made from chocolate and nuts. Nachos… a chip made by Doritos. I guess they could sound very much the same to an eight-year-old boy.
I gave that thoughtful little boy a big hug right there on the sidewalk.
~Deborah Lean
