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Remember, We're Raising Children, Not Flowers!
记住，我们是在养小孩，不是在养花
Jack Canfield
杰克·坎菲尔德
David, my next-door neighbor, has two young kids aged five and seven. One day he was teaching his seven-year-old son Kelly how to push the gas-powered lawn mower around the yard. As he was teaching him how to turn the mower around at the end of the lawn, his wife, Jan, called to him to ask a question. As David turned to answer the question, Kelly pushed the lawn mower right through the flowerbed at the edge of the lawn—leaving a two-foot wide path leveled to the ground.
我的邻居大卫有两个小孩，一个5岁，另一个7岁。一天，大卫教他7岁的儿子凯利如何使用气动割草机割草。当教到怎样在草坪尽头将割草机掉头时，他的妻子简突然喊他，问点事情。当大卫转过身回答简的问题时，凯利把割草机推到了草坪边的花圃上——在原本美丽的花圃上留下了一条2英尺宽的小径。
When David turned back around and saw what had happened, he began to lose control. David had put a lot of time and effort into making those flower beds the envy of the neighborhood. As he began to raise his voice to his son, Jan walked quickly over to him, put her hand on his shoulder and said, "David, please remember... we're raising children, not flowers!"
大卫转过身，面对眼前的情景，怒不可遏。要知道，这个花圃花费了大卫很多时间和精力才弄成今天这个样子，邻居们都对这个花圃无比羨慕。他提高嗓门准备训斥凯利时，简快步地走到他身边，用手轻轻地拍了拍他的肩膀，说：“大卫，别忘了——我们是在养小孩，而不是在养花！”
Jan reminded me how important it is as a parent to remember our priorities. Kids and their self-esteem are more important than any physical object they might break or destroy. The window pane shattered by a baseball, a lamp knocked over by a careless child or a plate dropped in the kitchen are already broken. The flowers are already dead; I must remember not to add to the destruction by breaking a child's spirit and deadening his sense of liveliness.
简的话提醒了我：作为父母弄清楚自身的特质有多么重要。孩子以及他们的自尊要比他们会打破或损坏的任何东西都要重要得多啊！那些曾经孩子们用棒球砸坏的窗户、不小心碰倒的台灯以及厨房里掉在地上摔碎的碟子都是已经毁坏了的东西。花圃里被割掉的花已经不能复原，我们就不要再去伤害孩子的心灵，削减他们的活力了。
