It's the Little Things

The longer I parent, the more I realize that it is usually the little things that make the biggest difference in our children's lives. For instance, last week David took John (just John) to go open up a savings account at the bank. Now that he has a little bit of money coming in from his Chinese/English translation business (he's earned $110 so far), we thought it was an appropriate time to teach John how to make deposits at a bank, and balance a bank register. Then yesterday, John's ATM card arrived in the mail. For almost 45 minutes David and I worked with John on his cursive, so that he can sign the back of his card appropriately. Signing your name seems like such a little thing, but to John it was an enormous task to be mastered. What really struck me though, is that this little thing is vitally important to our son's future. He will never have to sign documents with an X, because he is now literate. And boy was John happy when he finally learned how to "sign" his name in cursive, on his very own ATM card!! His own money, his own bankbook, and his first debit card....WOW!