The Art of Sacrifice (or not)

Earlier in the week, Zooey announced he was giving up television, candy, soda, cake and ice cream for Lent.

At first, my mother's heart swelled with pride that my son is so darn pius. "We're raising him right!" also came to mind.

Then my human weakness kicked in and I started to think it was way too much for a boy his age. "I don't want him to fail at Lent and be discouraged and never want to make a sacrifice again," I wanted to say...to cover up what I was really thinking, which was, "Rats -- then I'll have to give all that up, too, because I can't be 'weaker' than a six-year-old!"

And finally, reality hit. He only watches about an hour of TV a week, maybe 90 minutes if he's lucky. He only gets candy after "candy holidays" like Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter, and I limit it to one piece a day and usually pitch everything that's left after a week, so he wouldn't have had any candy during Lent as it is. We only have cake on birthdays (three of which are coming up, celebrations on Sundays so he'll probably have some anyway). Ice cream is a wee bit more frequent, especially in the summertime, but during this season, it woudl be only once or twice a week at best.

Did I say my son was being pius? He might just be craftier than anybody gives him credit for.

--Sparki