A Lesson From The Crayon Box
Have you ever noticed how color crayons bring out the very best and worst in toddlers?
Personally, we have seen this first hand around our house since our little man has an affinity to create “impressive” green and red art on our beige living room walls. Crayons produce hours of creative fun for children but they can quickly become the stuff of wax wars if anyone attempts to use, steal or, heaven forbid, take their crayons away. Angelic to devilish in 3.4 seconds!
I had just completed the revolving door of picking up legos, nerf bullets and dog toys off the living room floor. I proceeded to plop down on the baby daddy’s man throne and slide my legs onto his ottoman. Ah, a brief mommy moment.
Kids have “mommy rest radar.” They can be at the other end of the house but it’s like they just KNOW. “Quick, she just sat down so let’s either go tell her the same story for twenty-three minutes, fight, whine or beg for a $.99 iTunes purchase until we lose our voices!”
About thirty seconds later, my three-year old cuteness overload happily marched in front of me with a handful of crayons, plunked down on the floor in front of me and began sorting them out by color. Being that his favorite colors are red and green, these two had the largest piles.
The kid was beside himself with giddiness! “Mama, wook! I got ’g’een’ and ‘wed’ ones. See?” He then created a masterpiece of messiness on a blank sheet of paper. With “wed” and “g’een” crayon in hand, he was engaged, having fun and at peace.
Then, I walked seven feet into the next room to begin cleaning again. You know that feeling a parent gets when things are just way too eerily quiet? Ding ding! Thirty minutes had passed. Time to go explore.
No kid in the living room. Hmm.
No kid in the bedroom. Double hmm.
What the what?
There he was, holed up in the corner of my foyer, with green and red crayons in hand coloring all over my beige wall! Being my third child, I had been down this yellow brick road before. He got scolded, refused to give up the crayons, I snatched them and then THE MELTDOWN.
It’s in this moment that crayons bring out the worst in toddlers. The world is now void of all goodness, fairness and brightness because they failed to use a good thing the right way.
As I have just gotten caught up on the news of the moment, the same lesson applies. How we respond to others, especially those different from us, brings out the best and the worst in all of us.
White police fatally wounding black civilians in what appears to be unnecessary force.
A small child exposed to violence.
Snipers offing white police just because of their skin and occupation.
Politicians having prime opportunities to unite but choosing words of division.
Action to anger, anger to hate, hate to death, death to apathy and the cycle continues.
But there is good.
A distinguished African-American policeman sincerely weeping and bear hugging a Caucasian female.
An unbounded cry from a woman of color for all people, regardless of appearance or background, to stand by their spoken oaths and to be role models for others that so desperately need it.
Elected officials, both white and black, male and female, unite to serve and protect their communities.
I like to believe that the majority of people, although selfish in our own ways, have hearts that are breaking right now because human lives are sacred and most want to do everything in their power to bring an end to hate.
A red crayon will never fully understand what it’s like to be a green crayon and a green crayon will never completely grasp how life as a red crayon is. They physically look different, have various shades, paint contrasting pictures and are used to create subjective art in diverse places. Crayons are different, yet the same. They all come from the same box and, honestly, coloring is much more enjoyable when two or more are used together.
I adore how children instinctively understand this, regardless of what it looks like and where it happens. Although little ones have their own idiosyncrasies, the goal of coloring with crayons is to create something beautiful. There is a valuable lesson in that.
My children are being taught to love others and not to hate. Let’s not make it harder for them to continue embracing that. How about the world take a step back, implement a new perspective and watch kids of different pigmentations and backgrounds play with a box of crayons. They may disagree, bicker or even get emotional, but by the end of the play date, beautiful things are created and they can walk away hand in hand, having put all the crayons back in the box…together.
After the Goo Be Gone and Magic Eraser saved my wall once again, I found the little guy pouting in my bedroom in the corner, looking up at me with a Rudolph nose and crocodile tears. I lifted him up for a brief snuggle and gentle correction. “How about mama gives you back the crayons if you color where you are supposed to and we can both get what we want.”
He sniffs a couple of times, leans in for a shoulder hug and says “Ok mama. I sorry, I ‘wuv’ you.”
Compromise can be a beautiful thing.
Lydia is an Alabama native, married to the love of her life and raising three young children. After leaving a successful sales and marketing career to devote herself full-time to family, she created the blog site ThreeKidsandaBabyDaddy to chronicle the journey with the purpose of Capturing the humor in parenthood one moment at a time." You can also follow Lydia on "Facebook
