Patience is a virtue

I've always thought I was lacking in the patience department. But as I've grown older, I've figured out that it's not that I don't have any patience, it's that I don't have patience with certain situations. I guess I the old saying is true for me ... I don't suffer fools lightly.

I get really riled up in traffic. I get incredibly frustrated with people who don't work hard at their jobs. I get so mad at people who don't show common courtesies to others.

But when it comes to my son, my patience seems to be exponentially greater. Sometimes, much like his father, he is soooooo slow. Some mornings it takes him 5 minutes to get from the house, down the steps and to the car. But it's important to him that he gets to do it himself. Therefore, it's important to me, and my usual speed decreases to match his slow-pokey-ness.

It happens at meal-time, too. It's important for Biscuit to use his fork and spoon and feed himself. He's pretty good at it, too. But oh, how I have to hold myself back. Sometimes it takes him FOR-ever to eat. And he spills food. And he gets excited and waves his fork back and forth, flinging food on the table and floor. And he gets some bites alllll-most to his mouth before the food falls off the fork. But instead of grabbing the food and shoving it in his mouth, he puts it back on his plate and starts all over again. (There is documented stubborn-ness on both sides of Biscuit's family.)

And it happens when he's playing, too. He stacks his blocks together as high as they'll go, then they all fall over, and he has to start again. Sometimes I'll explain to him that if he'll build a more solid foundation for his blocks, he can build higher. But I have to walk that fine line between explaining/helping/teaching and taking over/doing it for him/not letting him figure it out on his own.

I don't know where this patience comes from. I've tried to rationalize that if I can have this kind of patience with Biscuit, I can have it for that little-bittty lady in that big ol' SUV with the cell phone pressed against her ear who has no clue how to drive. But then I realized, I have a vested interest in my son. I want him to learn and grow and become his own little person. As far as that little-bitty lady in the SUV, it's better if I just keep those thoughts to myself.