When our children are better humans than we are.

As a parent, I get to be morally superior to my littles.

"No no, that's not nice," I say. "Please share," I say. "Make good choices, and be kind," I say.

I say, I say, I say.

And then one day, my child's moral compass is pointing in the right direction, and mine is just being lazy.

Dontcha hate it when that happens? Happens more often than I'd like to admit, but there was this one time that stands out.

It was May, Bacca (Lily's grandpa from Wisconsin) was here,and we went to the beach.

It was just a normal day at the beach for us, and we did the stuff we normally do.

Like build sandcastles.

Crash a wedding.

Wade in the water.

Incidentally, it was Brendan's first time to the beach. Well, outside of the baby carrier, at least.
He got to dip his little baby toes in the Gulf.

 While playing in the shallow water, we came across some live sand dollars.
What a cool little find, and it was great for Lily to see and get some firsthand learning. And then we explained to her that they are still alive, even though it doesn't look like they are living creatures. So we placed them back in the water where they belong. 

Then we went along our way. Until I noticed Lily was concerned about something. 

I asked her what was wrong, and she pointed to some other people and told me that they took the sand dollars out of the water and kept them. She told me they were going to die. I took a look at the people, decided I really didn't want to deal with a confrontation, and told her I was sure that they were going to put them back. 

Yes, I really did.

She didn't buy it. She said maybe they don't know that they are alive. It's worth noting that they did know, and in case they didn't, my dad had already told them. His shaming them wasn't enough for them to do the right thing, and another reason I didn't want to get involved. But Lily was so worried about those sand dollars.

I asked her what she that we should do about it. She wanted me to tell the people that they are living sand dollars and need to be in the water. She just thought they didn't know. 

Sigh. Not much else I could do at this point. So I went over and told them that my daughter was worried about the sand dollars and asked them to please tell her that they were going to put them back in the water. To my surprise, they didn't. They just mumbled something at me and then put the sand dollars back in the water. Shaming from a child works.

Thanks, Lily, for being the better person.