This is what ensued at soccer practice last week…

A little boy walks up to Audrey, my friends’ daughter and I.  He is darling and dons a full tooth grin at me.

He asks me if I have any food.  I tell him no.

He asks the other little girl if he can have her snack that she is currently eating.

She looks at me and then at him and says “I guess you could ask your mom.”

He replies “I’m sure she’d say yes.  You can just give it to me.”

I ask her if that’s all the raisins she has, she says yes.  I tell him to go ask his mom.

He leaves, comes back and says she said yes.

The little girl offers him one raisin, after all she only has a tiny box of them.

He turns his nose up and quickly says “I don’t want one, can’t I have the whole box?”

She thinks and offers a handful (half the box) and still he asks for the whole box.

I tell him if he is really hungry he can go ask his mom for a snack.

He leans on my knee, I smile, he doesn’t know me at all.  And picks up my phone.

“Is this a Smartphone?”

I reply “I don’t even know what a Smart phone is, but no, it’s just a plain old regular cell phone.”

“Well, my dad has a Smartphone and it does everything, it even plays video games, you should get one.”

I smile and tell him my non-smart phone is just fine.

Then he asks “Have you ever been to the mall?”

I answer “Yes, but we very rarely go.  It’s crowded and things are pretty expensive.”

He quickly replies “Oh no, they aren’t.  There are restaurants and places to get lots of food.  And it really doesn’t cost much at all.  You really should go.  There are so many things there to get.”

I ask “How do you know it’s not expensive?  Do you pay for things?”

“No, no, I don’t.  But I know it’s not.  My parents pay for it all.  You have to go, it’s such a fun place.”

I’m thinking of how stressed out I get thinking about going to the mall, how it’s one of my least favorite places and I just listen to the education I’m getting from this little boy.

He changes the subject.  “Are you sure you don’t have any food in your car you could go get?”

I tell him I forgot snacks today and again that he could go ask his mom for something.  He stays and practically sits on my lap.

He asks “What kind of TV do you like?”

I tell him we don’t have a TV that we try to do other fun things like play games and dress up and read books.

His jaw drops and he slaps my leg and bellows “WHAT?  You don’t have a TV?  You gotta go get one dude.  Like tonight!”

I try not to laugh and tell him we’re surviving without one.  He goes on and on about how really we are missing out and how I could get one at Costco he’s pretty sure.

Wow.  I suppose I could have felt pretty judged by this little darling man but I truly enjoyed our conversation and it sure made me think about how and what I communicate values to my children.  I am pretty sure I’ve never learned so much watching my daughter practice soccer.

And tonight for practice, I’m bringing snacks for the Smartphone talking-mall going-TV loving little boy (big grin!).