My kids are good most of the time. They’re a bit cheeky on occasion but that’s just because they’re adventurous, not because they want to hurt anyone. What seems like antisocial behaviour is, when you look closer, just innocent mischief. My husband tries to discipline them but I do think he’s being too harsh sometimes. I’m kind of glad that they have an imagination at least and that they know how to enjoy themselves. So long as they don’t hurt anyone else, these are great traits to carry on into adulthood.
Take the other day for example. My husband had to take the kids with him to the business with him in the evening because I was working too and we didn’t have a baby sitter. In the type of work he does, they require some commercial floor cleaning equipment such as those nifty ride on floor scrubbers. Brisbane is a reasonably populated place and the floors of his workplace need to be cleaned frequently due to all the people passing through. Anyway, he left the kids in one of the empty rooms (bare except for a trash can and a ride on floor scrubber), thinking the kids would be okay for just a few minutes while he attended to some other work. When he came back, they were each riding on the back of a scrubbing machine, playing hockey with sticks and a can out of the trash. While he reprimanded them for their mischief, I felt a secret sense of pride.
To think that the kids could create a game out of something as boring as a ride on floor scrubber! Melbourne kids like me are probably not as inventive as the Brisbane kids who have to make their own fun in a boring town. I can only hope that as they grow older they develop the wisdom to avoid hurting themselves while retaining their idiosyncratic creative flair.