Independent Initiative
Yesterday was James' fourth birthday. That's a pretty big milestone because now's about the age when he starts really thinking about other people as people and not just sources of stuff. It's tough sometimes to remember that kids go through a (fairly long) period where they simply can't understand concepts like "that makes me sad" and why they wouldn't want to make someone else sad. It's normal brain development, but once you have empathy, it's really, really difficult to understand that these little people who don't have it yet aren't being mean, they're just being themselves and almost every one of them will grow out of it. For James, there was a bit of a gradual development of empathy, he would periodically announce some fact that he understood — I shouldn't hit Brazen-cat because she will be sad . — but mostly it still seemed to be a collection of facts, not something he understood implicitly. Then, over the holidays...
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