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Remember, We're Raising Children, Not Flowers!
記住，我們是在養小孩，不是在養花
Jack Canfield
杰克·坎菲爾德
David, my next-door neighbor, has two young kids aged five and seven. One day he was teaching his seven-year-old son Kelly how to push the gas-powered lawn mower around the yard. As he was teaching him how to turn the mower around at the end of the lawn, his wife, Jan, called to him to ask a question. As David turned to answer the question, Kelly pushed the lawn mower right through the flowerbed at the edge of the lawn—leaving a two-foot wide path leveled to the ground.
我的鄰居大衛有兩個小孩，一個5歲，另一個7歲。一天，大衛教他7歲的兒子凱利如何使用氣動割草機割草。當教到怎樣在草坪盡頭將割草機掉頭時，他的妻子簡突然喊他，問點事情。當大衛轉過身回答簡的問題時，凱利把割草機推到了草坪邊的花圃上——在原本美麗的花圃上留下了一條2英尺寬的小徑。
When David turned back around and saw what had happened, he began to lose control. David had put a lot of time and effort into making those flower beds the envy of the neighborhood. As he began to raise his voice to his son, Jan walked quickly over to him, put her hand on his shoulder and said, "David, please remember... we're raising children, not flowers!"
大衛轉過身，面對眼前的情景，怒不可遏。要知道，這個花圃花費了大衛很多時間和精力才弄成今天這個樣子，鄰居們都對這個花圃無比羨慕。他提高嗓門準備訓斥凱利時，簡快步地走到他身邊，用手輕輕地拍了拍他的肩膀，說：“大衛，別忘了——我們是在養小孩，而不是在養花！”
Jan reminded me how important it is as a parent to remember our priorities. Kids and their self-esteem are more important than any physical object they might break or destroy. The window pane shattered by a baseball, a lamp knocked over by a careless child or a plate dropped in the kitchen are already broken. The flowers are already dead; I must remember not to add to the destruction by breaking a child's spirit and deadening his sense of liveliness.
簡的話提醒了我：作為父母弄清楚自身的特質有多么重要。孩子以及他們的自尊要比他們會打破或損壞的任何東西都要重要得多??！那些曾經孩子們用棒球砸壞的窗戶、不小心碰倒的臺燈以及廚房里掉在地上摔碎的碟子都是已經毀壞了的東西。花圃里被割掉的花已經不能復原，我們就不要再去傷害孩子的心靈，削減他們的活力了。
