I recall one of the earlier years when we bought things to send to a little girl in Mexico who lived in an orphanage. Nicky was about 4 years old, and I had to explain to him that we were buying Christmas presents for a little girl who didn't have parents. He was so sad for her and so affected by this information - that there are children who don't have homes or parents - that I thought he would remember it for the rest of his life.
Yeah.
No.
Year after year, my kids remember nothing. In fact, they don't remember a single service project we've done.
I don't know why this is - my kids remember everything. But I digress.
This year I wanted to try a different kind of service. Instead of doing an outward service project, I wanted my children to serve each other.
Back in the 80's, my mom used to go to Family Home Evening groups where all the women would take turns putting together FHE lessons to swap. My mom accumulated vast amounts of manila folders with FHE lessons. One of my favorite lessons was about Gracious George the Gingerbread Man. The lesson told the story of the Gingerbread Man with a twist. Instead of just running away, George would stop and do service along the way. After the lesson, we would take turns doing something nice for a family member and leave a little stuffed gingerbread man behind to indicate that it was now that person's turn to do something nice.
A few months ago, I tried this activity with my kids for FHE. The little gingerbread man (which I inherited) had gone missing, so we used a pound puppy instead. I read the story to my kids and then I introduced the dog and the service activity. Things went well for about a day, but then it was Daisy's turn, and she didn't really "get it." She would just hide the dog where no one could find it. After the second time she hid it, we never found it, and the activity died a mere two days after it started.
Nevertheless, I wanted to do this activity again throughout the month of December and have this as a holiday tradition. After all, my kids aren't always nice to each other, and they're not always nice at Christmas time in general. So I bought a stuffed gingerbread man and renamed him Generous George the Gingerbread Man (because it has better alliteration that Gracious George the Gingerbread Man), and last Monday, I reintroduced the lesson to my kids, did a walk-through with Daisy so she would understand she can't hide George, and then we began our service. Daisy started by doing service for Zoe. Then Daisy helped Zoe do service for Scotty. Zoe put Scotty's shoes away for him and left George with Scotty's shoes. Then Scotty didn't find George for six days because Scotty never puts his shoes away (and apparently didn't need the pair that Zoe cleaned up) and therefore, never saw that George was in his shoe basket (and after I clued him in, it still took him two days to finally make contact with George). This morning I woke up and noticed that Generous George is on top of the fridge.
So, I guess if Daisy isn't hiding George, it's Scotty's stashing habit that will do us in. I'm not sure if I should admit defeat now or give it one more shot and admit defeat next Monday.
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