Empathy « Artificially Sweetened

Empathy

June 25, 2009 at 8:00 pm | In M'ijo | 5 Comments

Writing this mostly for myself, to remember it, and also to remind me that there is so much more to m’ijo than his mindblowing tantrums.

This morning I bumped my funny bone while walking with P’ito. He asked “You get a boo-boo on your elbow Mama?” and when I said yes, he very sweetly rubbed it and said Sana Sana all the way through. “You feel better Mama?”

After school today, we went to the library. The librarian was super nice and helped us locate P’ito’s beloved Red Truck even though it was about two minutes after closing. I prompted P’ito to thank her, but he was sulky – no! no say thank you! He read Red Truck to himself in the car and when I came around to get him out of the car he seemed very quiet and then said: Library lady help me – I no say thank you. I asked him if he wished he had said thank you, and he said yes, that he felt sad about it. He asked if we could go back and say thank you and agreed that we would do it tomorrow.

I’m so bad at remembering the exact words of these exchanges, at capturing the tone of voice that makes it clear to me that he’s really thinking and caring about how other people feel. But moments like these make me feel like we’re on the right path.

5 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

It sounds like you’re very much on the right path. He’s a sweet little boy.

Comment by Genie — June 25, 2009 #

Reply
I just found your blog off of guatadopt and I am enjoying reading it. Your posts are witty and introspective which is refreshing. I have a 2.5 yo from GT as well…a little girl. I enjoyed reading about your answer to the question of straight people supporting gay rights. My company (Progressive) is going to the top 10 pride festivals this year and I got to be in a photo shoot to suppor the effort. I have really enjoyed being part of the effort.

Comment by Aimee — June 25, 2009 #

Reply
Very cute. I bet the librarian will be tickled he returned to thank her today.

Comment by Lyrehca — June 26, 2009 #

Reply
Y’know, the fact that he’s able to articulate his empathy means that the mindblowing tantrums will ease up sometime soon. The more he can verbalize and acknowledge his feelings the less he’ll meltdown through sadness/anger/disappointment (provided he’s not ALSO tired and hungry).

Comment by liz — June 26, 2009 #

Reply
What a sweet boy! I’ve really noticed a change in Ruby since she’s started showing some empathy (although she just threw her apple at me for no obvious reason.)

Comment by Kerri — June 27, 2009 #

Reply