Perspective...

It was a warm summer's night in our quite suburban neighborhood at the Mason household. The kids had been playing outdoors all afternoon and with time winding down until bedtime, I decided to shorten our evening ritual by calling in a pizza. While waiting for it to arrive, I sent the boys upstairs to take a bath. They were thrilled with the idea! They would take out their bath toys, turn on the jets and have at it! Soon after, I made my way upstairs to find them soapy and tossing toys - water everywhere! The doorbell rang and I made my way downstairs, paid for the pizza, and went back upstairs to tend to them. It was then that I found my youngest son mumbling words unable to be made out and clearly upset while my oldest boy floated in the tub face down and not moving!

The sight of such a thing caused my heart to nearly beat out of my chest as I ran over to grab him screaming "What happened!?!" Before his brother could answer, I pulled him out of the water with the same force exerted by "Sho'nuff" to the then drowning "Bruce Leroy" in Barry Gordy's 1985 cult classic, The Last Dragon! With water splashing everywhere I noticed him take a breath...then he said "Dad, why did you do that? I was about to beat the record!"  Apparently his younger brother was counting and visibly mad that his older brother had already beat his time spent underwater! Play time was over - I removed the bath toys!

In life, I've found that many things aren't as they first appear because each person sees a situation from their own perspective. This includes everything from the made for TV magician specials to relationships with people. For example, often the way in which we meet people or our position within the audience of a magic show determines what we think of the people we meet or the show, perspectively.

With that being said, I believe that as parents it's our job to teach our children to put things into proper perspective when making decisions in life or simply encountering things we don't understand. Have them try and mentally remove themselves from the situation and take into account others feelings, backgrounds, and view points. This will give them a broader view of both themselves and the world around them.

Seeing my son in the tub floating like that brought about thoughts I won't even attempt to describe. He was jarred by my reaction and I by his actions. Grateful that the worst case scenario didn't play out, I explained to him how I saw it and how that should never be done again. This unless he really wanted my heart to "beat out of my chest" but to know that it wouldn't be before I did some beating of my own!

By the end of our conversation I think we both understood each others point of view. I mean the boy clearly had an undeniable talent for holding his breath! He then calmly asked for his bath toys back. I calmly suggested that he remove himself from the situation and...oh, not to hold his breath!