Kindergarten, Middle School, and Why I am Not having kids for a long while

This week I have been subbing in a kindergarten class. Their teacher has been doing testing and pre-registration stuff, so she is out until next Tuesday. I thought I had learned a lot in first grade, but kindergarten has taught me that first grade was cake. These kids are figuring out how to do school, and it's a riot. They seem to respond to discipline better than older grades, but their impulses are more wild, uncontrolled.

If they want to slug their neighbor, they will do it.

If they want to answer every question on their standards test wrong, they will.

If sticking rocks in their pants sounds like fun, then the rocks will enter the pants.

There is no sense of a self-check, or self-edit. They just do what they please.

Andy and I teach a junior high/high school Sunday School class, and then help lead youth group on Wednesdays. Most of our kids are in 6-7 grade. They are learning how to do life. They are testing their boundaries in all areas.

If they want to shout out answers, they will. And they are never the right answer.

If they want to stick their feet on their neighbor, they will.

If they want to run around and shriek, they will.

There is no sense of a self-check, or self-edit. They just do what they please.

And sometimes, I love it.

And sometimes, my fun meter is pegged pretty darn quick.

And this, this is why I need to wait to have children. I need to be a bit older, a bit more mature before I can handle this kind of thing full time.

For now, I will just borrow other people's kids and give them back when things get nutty.