From A 6-Year Old's View

Last week we kept our 6-year old nephew for the week. He came out from Ohio and is jumping from house-to-house taking turns spending a week or so with each of his cousins. M. and I forgot what it was like to take care of a 6-year old but were rapidly jarred into a blast from the past – memories of raising our own 3 boys past 6-year-old hood. There’s quite a lot we forgot, like . . . you have to answer (or ignore) at least 4 dozen questions a day, you have to remind them to whisper in church when they need to ask you something, you HAVE to provide a snack before bed (and graham crackers don’t count), and last but not least, you have to take them to the potty when you’re out.

Now lest you think that there’s no joy in keeping a 6-year old, here’s the other things we remembered:

* that laughing loudly over Fred Flintstone’s antics is good for your heart
* that eating 4 tacos and proclaiming how good they are to the cook after each one is very encouraging
* that loudly cheering on your cousins when they make a good play during softball comes naturally
* that being the first to use a fresh bar of soap is pretty cool
* that having fruit smoothies for breakfast is awesome
* and that spending a week together is good for the 6-year-old, the teenage cousins and the middle-age aunt and uncle in more ways than one