If you really search this blog, you'll find scattered posts about my now adolescent 18 month puppies. In keeping with tradition...Thanksgiving week I walk downstairs in the morning and both puppy beds look like this recreated scene. Were my puppies playing cards in the middle of the night? All the college kids are home.
Notice the cards with chewed corners. They weren't there the night before. The picture of Ellie's nose on the table watching us play cards* earlier that day was too dark to print, sorry.
I offer this as further evidence that puppies chew, trying to do the work they see us doing, LOL!
And the tie-in to kids? Kids try to do what they see us doing, too. As our littles ones grow in our family groups (critters or people) we teach them to do the work we do. As little people pretending trying to do the work we do, they're doing real work. As they approach adulthood, meaningful work helps them use hormone-driven energy constructively, (hopefully) adding to their sense of purpose, growing skills they didn't have, and giving opportunity to work alongside adults doing adult work.
Getting paid is a perk, too.
Sometimes it helps them bypass the negatives of the inbetween. Sometimes the pressure's on to grow up before they're really ready, but giving teens opportunity to do the things they love or to try a variety of things, to learn work-related skills getting involved in a world beyond themselves and their peer group can only help.
In part I was kidding when I first started this puppy chewing & work theory but hey! Not only am I convinced, but maybe it's really really true. :)
*Ok, the benefits of card playing are controversial.
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