Did you know before Walt Disney plussed Pinocchio, Jiminy was slated to be squashed?
In our house, bedtime always gets my children chattering. It is the time they finally decide to tell my husband and me about their day. Sometimes I think I have accidentally trained my children to save these stories for bedtime by allowing their chatter to continue beyond bedtime because I am very curious about their day. I treasure this time with them. During these times, they tell us all about their hopes and fears, and sometimes they ask us some questions about the things they may have heard or seen during their day. This is certainly not their only opportunity to talk with us, although it does tend to be the most productive. For some reason they aren’t in the story sharing mood in the morning before we leave home for the day. Then when I call them on the phone, after they have returned from school, they share no real news with me. I receive general statements about their having a good day and an over the phone hug and kiss with a wish for me to come home as soon as I can. I know they want to get off of the phone so they can change their clothes and play outside before supper- and homework-time rolls around. I don’t press them for details as I would rather see them happy while we are working than see them sad and missing us. I know if I am patient they will spill all of their details later while I try and put them to bed.
A few days ago, I could tell something was different about my oldest daughter’s story du jour from the get go. What I didn’t know was how her story would rock me to my core. It started with, “I saved my friend’s life today.” What?!, not wanting to interrupt the flow of information, I nodded, and she continued with details about how she and a neighbor’s daughter were playing back and forth between the two yards when their ball rolled onto the neighbor’s hard top pool cover. She said her friend started to walk toward the ball and my daughter yelled, “Stop - that’s not safe!” Okay, so now I was almost dying with fright, but I wanted to hear her whole story so I kept quiet. My daughter said her friend’s dad came over and pushed the ball off the pool cover with the big pool stick. (Up until now I was worried sick that they somehow were playing all alone. They were not alone, the dad was in the backyard and my mom was on her back deck watching them.)
I asked my daughter what it was that made her tell her friend to stop and her answer really hit me over the heart. She said, “You know that little voice inside that tells you what is right, you know, like Jiminy Cricket - your ‘chonchunce’? It yelled STOP to me!”
Well, my friends, I am now wondering if I have been teaching my children to listen to their conscience enough or if I have been teaching them to listen to me. I realized that it is imperative they have a good and strong inner voice that can be there guiding them as I can’t be with them all of the time. I am so grateful Walt made this movie and that I have shared it with my children. I am not so sure my children would know much about listening to their conscience if Walt hadn’t picked this story to plus into a movie. Walt planted this seed for my children, and in turn I promise to help it to grow. From now on, I will try even harder to encourage my girls to listen for and follow their Jiminy Cricket voice that lives inside of them.
In the back of my mind, while I know there were adults watching them, the thoughts I had while I listened to the story still seem scary. As scary as these “what ifs” are, since all worked out fine, I can now be thankful I wasn’t there at that moment. I know if I were there, I would have immediately told them to let the ball go before they even had a chance to think about what they should do. Although this would have kept them safe for the moment, it would have robbed them of a valuable life lesson. I now wonder how often I have inadvertently stolen opportunities for their inner growth in an effort to guarantee their safety. I want her to have these opportunities to get to know and learn to trust her Jiminy.
While this story already had a happy ending, here is a little bonus for you. I gave her a reward of a Webkinz that night. I thought she deserved a tangible prize to go along with the real prize I knew she had already received. She took the Webkinz and gave it a big hug. I asked her what she was going to name it. She looked at it and said, “This is Jiminy Kitten, can I register him this weekend?” And so it goes……
