Caring is Sharing

Having one boy is a joy, having two boys is a blessing. Finding a way to get those boys to play nice together is nearly impossible.

AJ will smother Santiago with kisses and tell him he loves him and that he's the best baby in the world. And five seconds later, he's got his fingers in Santiago's eyeballs because he took one of AJ's toys to play with.

I'll be talking to Santiago, and AJ will throw a temper tantrum as if his world is ending because he is not the one getting all of the attention.

I gave Santiago a bite of AJ's biscuit the other day, and you would have thought I had stabbed AJ in the back with a knife the way he reacted.

And even with his struggles to share with his baby brother, he still finds a way to give me these moments when I realize that he is much more of a giving little person than most kids or adults are.

AJ's birthday is just a few days before Christmas. So I knew that he was going to be getting an unbelievable amount of toys between both of those days.

I had already told my wife that I was going to be going through his toys and throwing away a bunch of stuff that was broken or just junk and then donating the toys that were still in good condition.

She and I didn't think he was going to go for it. I pumped myself up for the conversation I was going to be having with my soon to be 3 year old.

This kid is smart, so I had to think of a million excuses as to why I was going to be getting rid of all these toys. I thought about saying the Grinch stole them. Or that Santa's elves had to take them back to their warehouse for inspection.

Anything that was going to distract him from the fact that I was ultimately getting rid of a bunch of his toys.

I sat next to him while he was eating, I figured this would be the best time because he's usually most happy when he's got food in front of him. I told him that I was going to be giving his toys to kids who didn't have toys. I told him that we were going to take a bag of toys to a place that will give them to these kids.

His response was "Theres kids that don't have toys? Yes, I have to give my toys to kids that don't have toys. All kids need to have toys."

I mean come on now. How is that my two year old son knows more about sharing than the president?

It's just another moment when he shows me that he's the most woke person in our household.

I'm sure there's gonna be times in the future when I get a call from his teacher saying that AJ had to pull a red card in class for not sharing. And there's gonna be other times when we're having a parent teacher conference and they tell me that I have the sweetest and most giving boy in the world.

I wouldn't be shocked by either of those statements. I know my precious little boy doesn't like to share sometimes, and honestly I'm the same way. When we go out to eat and my wife says "Don't order me fries, I'll just have some of yours." You know damn well I'm ordering two, because I ain't sharing shit when it comes to fries.

But having those conversations, and teaching him why it's important to share is key. But in this case, he was the one teaching me.