You Let Him Do WHAT?

 We let him use a stove, and an oven. You're welcome future wife of Ben.

We also let him use a BBQ. You're welcome future roommates. 

We let him ride his bike around the neighborhood. 

And we let him ride to the donut store and the grocery store, which is across major streets... but we follow him in our car, because believe it or not we do have some limits.

He starts fires,

and climbs trees,

and stands on roofs, 

and whittles.

     

 Surprisingly, brave is not a word that characterizes Ben. He's more determined than brave. He gets his mind set on something and (if Mark and I won't do it for him, because believe me he's asked)

he figures out a way to do it on his own. I suppose that is a form of bravery, isn't it? 

We are happy to have a kid that acts the way kids did 25, 30, 50 years ago. We know the world is a different place, we get it. We do our best to not set him up for extreme danger, but we also do our best to let him try challenging things. When he was two and wanted to climb the ladder at the playground I said, "Yes you CAN, this is how..." when other moms were saying, "No you can't, you're too little." And I've tried to keep that mentality with every new ladder he wants to climb, faithfully praying for wisdom along the way.