I think I’m coming to the realization that my oldest son, Jaxon, is going to be the polar opposite of me concerning his behavior in school.  I’m afraid to admit that he looks like he’s going to be that kid in everybody’s class that is known as the crazy one, the class clown.  He’s the kid that you can get to do ANYTHING if you just begin your request with these three simple words, “I dare you…”.   He loves attention and loves to make people laugh. He’s a real ham when he  has an audience.  All rational thought goes out the window when he has an audience.  I realize that’s going to get him into trouble in the coming years.  It’s difficult to parent this type of behavior.  He’s a very loving kid, and never does anything to intentionally hurt anybody.  But he just feeds off the energy of the group and makes some poor choices.

As for me, I was completely opposite of that in school.  I was very shy in crowds, and just wanted to blend in with the wallpaper most of the time.  I hated attention to myself, whether it was good or bad.  I didn’t even like the teacher praising me in front of my classmates.  I knew I would get embarrassed, and then some smart-alec kid (usually the class clown) would always say, “Hey look everybody, he’s turning red!”  And of course when everybody in the class would look at me to see just how red I was turning, that really helped a lot.  I never did anything “stupid”.  I never ate bugs or painted a girls hair.  If somebody dared me to do something, my typical response would be, “Are you crazy?”

He seems to be a smart kid.  He’s doing very well in his reading, is well ahead of average for his age.  He does great when he’s got a task to work on.  It’s only when he’s idle and looking for something to do that things tend to go south.

So this parenting journey should be an interesting one over the next 10 or so years.  Please pray for us.