Kids

The birth of two new kids in the family, combined with my being able to spend time with my own children while on leave has left me with real sense of how profoundly children will change you. I have a chance to meet a lot of children over here, and I am always amazed how children are pretty much the same across cultural lines. Kids are essentially the same; it is only as they become adults do most of them begin to be different along cultural lines. Adult behaviors are most often learned, childhood behaviors are most often natural. I am not trying to be profound here, I am just amazed how much my own kids, my nieces, my nephews and the children I have met in Iraq act alike. Similarities include but are not limited to the following:

1. Kids like candy.
2. Kids ask for crap they can’t have or don’t need.
3. Kids run, a lot! Even if it is 120 degrees outside.
4. Kids are loud.

One of the most important things parents, and for that matter all grown-ups, can do is to always keep the heart of a young child. However, the most important thing is to put that heart in a place where the cops won’t find it, because that is not something you want to have to explain, under oath, in a court of law.