Childhood Innocence

My three-year-old son is a very intelligent boy. Of course I'd say that, right? After all, I'm his Daddy, so I naturally would think he's very intelligent. Well, my opinion is as unbiased as it can possibly be. My son is just an intelligent kid.

During my vacation we took him to Pumpkin Works to pick out his Halloween pumpkin. He must have looked forward to it for a week, based on how much he talked about it. Every time he asked to go, we'd answer, "In a few more days," or "In a couple of days."

Now Halloween is coming up and, like all kids, he's looking forward to trick-or-treating. He picked out his costume himself (it's a bat). It's all made me do a little thinking about the passing of time.

I'm tempted to buy him a calendar and start marking off each day so he can tangibly see Halloween getting closer. I'd put a big orange pumpkin on Halloween day and let him mark out each day with a big bold X when he goes to bed. I can just imagine the excitement building up inside him each night.

Then I have second thoughts. At three years old my son is blessed with True Innocence. He understands right and wrong, but he isn't afflicted with the knowledge of just how much evil there is in the world. And he doesn't care -- or even know, really -- if this is Monday, if it's October, or what the date is, or even what year it is. In his world, those things don't matter. Today is just another day of his childhood, and I hesitate to do anything to make him actually start realizing that these precious days are numbered. It's already going too fast for his Mommy and me. I don't want to do that to him.

So I'm scrapping the calendar idea. Let his child last as long as possible. Because, "in a few more days," he could be a man.

Joe