"You're In My Line"

Recently we went to Camp Sunshine's family camp. One of the activities we tried was putt-putt. The girls are still only 2 and 4 and have never done this before, so their skills were pretty rough. We didn't even attempt to teach them rules or technique, just letting them play.

Catherine understood that she was supposed to hit the ball with the club, but it would take her about 20 hits to get the ball anywhere near the hole. Sabrina seemed to think it was more effective to just pick her ball up and carry it around, sometimes to the hole. Sometimes not.

Anyway, Robby was trying to actually play a real game of putt-putt during this. I am not sure if Sabrina had any idea what the "goal" of the activity was, so she frequently just stood in the middle of course, ball and club in hand.

Robby would practice proper golf etiquette and say "Sabrina, you're standing in my line." As if she would have any idea what he meant! Sabrina, being 2, simply remained in Robby's line, watching the rest of us. We would physically have to move her off the course to get her out of his way.

We all need to frequently be reminded of how much our children are listening to us, of how often they repeat what we say, even when they have no idea what we meant.

So, we were tickled when Catherine, having placed her ball in the start location and preparing to swing her club, said "You're standing in my line, Sabrina." Then Catherine swung her club and hit the ball one second later, before Sabrina even had a chance to move (not that she would have moved anyway).

Then this past weekend we putt-putted again, this time in Gatlinburg. Catherine reminded us of the fishbowl parents are in when she placed her ball down and stated "You're standing in my line, Sabrina." At the time that Catherine made the statement, Sabrina was playing a different hole, proving that toddlers just repeat what they hear, whatever it means.