I hope this doesn’t come off “braggy”, but I really want to share how amazed and proud I am  of my son. My wife and I have been working hard for quite a while on teaching our son to think about others’ feelings and emotions, and think about how his actions might affect them. Well recently it felt like that was starting to hit home. 

My wife’s family is currently being hit hard by life with a couple of family members becoming very sick. It’s tough for us and difficult to keep up the joy and energy a toddler requires. But he is an amazing and smart kid and we try not to sugarcoat too much for him. He already is quite good at reading moods and feelings and can easily sense something is going on. The other night, without giving him too much detail we explained that sometimes people get very sick and it makes us sad. While cuddling with him, he listened closely and responded “It’s ok mommy, sometimes my friends get sick too”. The next day my wife needed to go back to the hospital to be with her family – while saying goodbye to our son he got sad because he was going to miss her and said “I’m going to miss you Mommy , but it’s ok she needs you.” Clearly he understood that his mom was feeling sad and then he actively tried to meet her where she was and relate with her…as a two (nearly three) year old!

We were amazed, touched and so pleased that our boy seemingly understood so much already. He’s still got quite a ways to go, especially when empathizing with kids his own age who are sharing his house and toys, but he is showing us that he is already so understanding and willing to reach out to someone in need. We are so blessed and encouraged to see who  our boy is and excited (although not in a hurry) to see who he will become.

In case you’re interested, my man Doyin’ (aka Daddy Doin’ Work) shared a great, short video about this earlier that helped inspire my post as well. It’s another great example of an awesome kid showing empathy. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/Upworthy/videos/1355094387864749/

This is fatherhood…