Listen Up!!

Today I was informed by my three year-old son’s preschool teacher that he refuses to hold his crayon correctly, that he lags far behind his peers in paper-cutting and that, as a consequence, he’s in danger of being unprepared to enter Kindergarten. A year and a half from now.

And this is not the first time I’ve gotten this type of report about my little son. The time before, the teacher asked whether I’d had Thomas’ ears checked. “He appears to have a hearing problem,” she said.

“No,” I countered. “He doesn’t.” Then I went on. “What he has is what every man I’ve ever known has. And it’s not a hearing problem, it’s a listening problem.” I uttered this statement with the certainty that can only come from having retreated to the furthest corner of the master bedroom closet to open a bag of chips in peace, only to have my little boy come dashing up the stairs and through two closed doors to find me, saying: “Mommy – have you got chips in there?”

The preschool teacher’s jaw hit the floor. But I was done talking, and so I swept my little man into my arms, kissed him on his chubby little cheeks, and took him home.

So what if he can’t cut a circle? So what if he refuses to hold his crayon in the proper manner? He’s three, for the love of God. And if he wants to cut zigzags and color like a deranged maniac, I’m prepared to accept that.

And someday, when they’re swearing him in to the Supreme Court, I’ll recall this day and smile.