Space Center Part III

Upon arriving in the Discovery Room at Chabot Space and Science Center, I found my own personal astronaut. One little known fact about astronauts--because NASA keeps it under wraps--is that they prefer to wear mismatched shoes.


As Kiernan manned the rocket, I couldn't help but be taken with the whole weird and great social dynamic that tethers to parenting. Kiernan was in this fake rocket, playing with a little space shuttle toy. At that moment he was alone. Eventually another child showed interest. What to do then?

I find the whole social contract that deals with kid etiquette and sharing and controlling your own kids to be fascinating. Sharing, in particular, I find fascinating. Let me start, at the outset, by saying that I believe sharing to be a good thing, an important thing. I believe we should do more of it. And yet, when I think of the sharing we encourage on the level of our children, I cannot help but take pause. What do we expect here? We expect that if our child meets another random child, a stranger, that he should share his toys with that stranger. Do we expect the same of ourselves as adults?

If some guy walked up to me and grabbed my iPod and demanded I let him examine it, I'd smack him. And for good reason. Yet we adults expect our children to share their toys with total strangers. What a weird society.

What a weird tangent.

Anyway, at some point another kid tried to enter the little fake rocket. I'm sure the kids would have eventually worked it out. They usually do, one way or the other. Instead the kid's mom and Kiernan's dad worked it out...through the kids. Another interesting dynamic (at least to me), is this talking-to-other-adults-by-talking-to-your-kid thing. The mom said to her little boy something like, "There's another boy in there. Just wait a little bit and it will be your turn." Those were her words to him. Translation to me: "Your kid is on the clock."

I said to Kiernan, "Okay, buddy. It's time for somebody else's turn. What do you want to play with next?" Translation to kid's mom: "I hear you. We'll be out of here in one minute."

We moved out of the rocket and shed the astronaut costume and Kiernan headed to the back of the Discovery Room. There he found a felt board with the sun and the planets on it. He got to work. One of the things I just love about Kiernan is his focus, the way he sticks with an activity. He loves the planets. He found a felt board with the planets on it. No other kids were interested. So he kept playing with the felt planets, on and on, until another kid interrupted him.

Eventually another kid did interrupt him. A kid named Connor picked up on Kiernan's intensity and jumped into the fray. They had a conflict when Connor grabbed the felt Earth. Connor's dad jumped in to moderate, and we had another of those proxy conversations. We both backed off, thankfully, and the kids made their way.

These are some of my favorite moments, watching Kiernan work things out with other kids. Watching the way kids converse and negotiate, especially without parental help. I love eavesdropping on toddler conversations. I love the way they work things out. Connor [pictured to the left with Kiernan] would point out a planet and Kiernan would correct him. They would go back and forth. It was great.

Shortly after this we all headed home for nap time and dreams of the planets. It was a great day, and only half over. After our trip through the Solar System, where would we go?

Why...Italy of course.

to be continued