1st Kid Review Is A Hit!
The first child review is in. Granted it was by my own children, but I have playfully kept them in the dark on the new changes of the story for the past six months. That’s right, Jaime Buckley CAN keep a secret!
And you thought I could only yodel and pop popcorn…
So I printed out the 181 typed pages, punched holes in them and placed them in a three ring binder. Then I handed the project to Cesilea, who is our resident bedtime story technician. If she can’t read a story to little kids and have them excited, it ain’t gonna happen for the ordinary mortals. Trust me on this one.
So we gathered around the living room nook and listened as she started reading…and I started flinching. I hated it from the third sentence on and I found Kathi holding my hand and smiling. “Just let them have the experience. No corrects this time–just the story and how they feel about it.”
So I gritted my teeth and zipped my lips shut.
Bedtime is at 7pm, lights out at 8:30pm…but there was roaring laughter, tears at times (from the laughter) and a series of boo’s and hisses from the children under 12 when we called it bedtime at 11:12pm. It was a total success. Kathi had to wrestle the binder from Ditto to make sure she didn’t read it into the night or try and get up early to do the same. Jessica also had to be watched like a hawk, for she wanted to know where we would be setting the book down in our bedroom!
My oldest girls gave mountains of feedback, but the best comment I received was from Cesilea. I asked what she thought and when she had stopped giggling, she said: “Dad, I think it’s a HIT!” All my concerns were explained away by my kids, who laughed at all the jokes, even the hidden ones. This included Jami Taylor (age 7) and Ethany (age 6), who didn’t understand the larger words, but laughed at the reactions and dialogue between the characters. What made me smile however, was when Cesilea would laugh so hard, she couldn’t read and we had to wait for her to dry her eyes. The bouts of laughter were usually followed by “Oh my heck dad, Wendell is a MOTARD!”
No feedback from outside readers yet, but Kathi and Ditto have always been my harshest critics. Last night gave me a ton of hope that, well…I don’t actually suck as a story teller. The cover design for the novel is underway as we speak.
Read MoreRights of a Child: Love
The basic foundation principle of a parent, at least in my own mind, should be love.
Now love is actually a big subject, especially when the world has distorted, misused, chopped up, mutilated and all but destroyed the definition of the word. From a loving mother, holding her new child in her arms after birth, whispering it for the first time….to the perversions of what Hollywood would have you believe, “Love” is defined as many things.
We have tough love, unconditional love, paternal love, brotherly love, the love between a husband and wife, even a ‘love of violence’. So where do we place ourselves as parents when it comes to love in conjunction with out little ones?
I have spent some time reading, talking with my children and even heard a great sermon in church Sunday ON Love, and it deserves to be looked at closely.
My sweet little daughter: Leilani Alyse Uapafutiolevaaoalii Buckley
In wondering how my children felt, I set my yellow pad down and called out to a few of my older children, Cesilea (18), Leilani (15) and Jessica (14). I asked them if they knew mom and I loved them. They just chuckled and said “Of course!” But when I asked them how, they looked puzzled. They couldn’t clarify at first. Nothing came to any of them, until Ditto (Cesilea) jabbed Leilani in the shoulder and laughed: “I know you love Lei, because you didn’t send her back for a working model!”.
It took them some time, but they finally told me they knew they were loved because of a structure we had in our home. When they thought about it, every action and decision Kathi and I made concerning them was engineered for their development. For their progression and their good. Ditto added that the pattern was there, even when they didn’t see it at first.
There were times when my children interacted with their friends, and they would witness conduct from their friends towards their parents, especially the mothers which would make them cringe. It was completely unacceptable behavior and they would come home, embarrassed for themselves…and their friends. “Why would they do that (or say that) to their own mother?” they would ask. Oh, my kids have struggles like any other youth, and they have good days and bad days. My goal is just to help them have far more of the good days.
I took the question next to my Sunday School class. I’m a strict adult, very abrupt, but for some strange reason, the kids want me back every year. That’s gone on for nearly 15 years now.
Standing before 14 twelve year olds (mostly girls), I snapped “Do I hate you guys?”
The room burst into giggles and an occasional laugh. “No.” they replied.
“But I yell at you often!” I bellowed.
One young lady smiled back. “But you love love us anyway.”
I smiled back. They were right. I loved each of them and prided myself on having the brightest kids in Church. Hmmm. I don’t hug them. I don’t change their diapers or feed them. In fact, I tell them stories and frequently call them ‘little craps’ when they act badly. Yet they come back, week after week, parents thank me and say their child has never loved church so much as in that class.
So what kind of love produces that type of result? Is it the same type of love my own children experience in our family?
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