Perspective

Over at Mr W's dad's house this past weekend, they euthanized their elderly dog, Reggie. Mr W and his step brother T knew what was going down, and T's grandpa took them both out for some fun at the go-kart place.

We talked about it, and Mr W said that he wished he was allowed to be there. I agreed, thinking that it's not easy, but there's not a good reason to keep that kind of thing from an 11 year old.

Something he said about the process, though, gave me pause. I'm starting to see more of this kind of thing, where he'll state opinions that are different (not in a bad way) from mine and I can see he's just coming at the issue from a different perspective. He was a bit incredulous that they paid someone to come to the house and euthanize Reggie. As if someone shouldn't profit from doing such an unsavory job, I think was where he was coming from.

I countered with the idea that what you want in those cases is a skilled professional to come in and give the dog a painless and dignified death. That it's totally worth calling in a professional to do the job.

Another instance was yesterday when we were walking the dog. In lieu of getting him signed up for an organized sport and wanting to keep him at least a little active, I make him come with me to walk the dog most days after school. This has been a good idea, as he's seeing the neighborhood, indeed, WE are seeing the neighborhood and I believe it helps us feel like it is ours. It's a neighborhood of old houses, many (most?) of which have been renovated and/or added onto. Also several places where they buy an old house, tear it down and build another. It gives us lots to talk about.

Anyway, we were crossing a street on our way out, and we waited for traffic to clear for a moment before scampering across. On the way back, we went to the crossing where they put up a stoplight specifically to let people cross. He pushed the button, the light turned red and we crossed. As usually happens, the light was red for a few seconds after we'd finished crossing. I mentioned I always feel a little guilty that I'm keeping people waiting when I could have just waited to cross. He said he felt powerful ("like a king") because he had the ability to make people wait for him. Funny.

There was another instance, but I can't remember it at the moment. He is racing headlong into tween-dom. They have a dance at this school Friday, and I'm encouraging him to go. I think he'd have fun, and they don't (thank goodness) need a date or anything like that. Sometime after I was in high school, someone got the idea that kids should be able to go to dances without an escort. Brilliant idea.

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