M
MariaMadeline
Guest
Hi Everyone~
My husband and I have been together for many years and unfortunately were never blessed with babies (I had cancer~but I lived, so it’s good, I’m not a whiner). Especially since we have six nieces and nephews that we are, in one way or another, helping raise.
My question is this: I have an extremely bright five year old niece. When I say extremely, I mean she picks up on EVERYTHING~you can’t say a darned thing around this kid that she doesn’t analyze or pick up on, and now we can’t even spell around her. She’s figured that out too.
Her mom is young and her dad is currently incarcerated (she was overheard recently telling someone that her daddy was ‘currently incorporated’~so the use of six-dollar words don’t trick her either), and she is being raised, therefore, by the team~fortunately it’s a big family and she doesn’t lack for love and attention. But of all of us, I am probably the only true believer when it comes to prayer, etc. Or has any kind of religious upbringing that hasn’t been totally rejected in adulthood.
When she was three and just wanted to know where people and dogs and stuff went when they died and I could talk to her a bit about heaven and stuff, that was simple. But I wear a necklace with an image of the Virgin on it, and she was asking me about it yesterday. She wanted to know how, if she wanted to ask Mary for help, how to do it. Now, I’ve not been a practicing Catholic in a long time, since childhood, though I still pray to the Saints at times and like that. But I wasn’t sure what to say, even though it’s okay with her mother if I talk to her about stuff like this.
She’s the type of kid that wants to know exactly how to do something if she’s going to do it, and I was kind of vague at best. Anyone have any advice at all about this?
Thank you in advance.
This is a child that is very likely not to be raised in any sort of organized religion~I don’t know if that detail is relevant, but I thought I would throw it in there for clarity’s sake if it matters.
MM
My husband and I have been together for many years and unfortunately were never blessed with babies (I had cancer~but I lived, so it’s good, I’m not a whiner). Especially since we have six nieces and nephews that we are, in one way or another, helping raise.
My question is this: I have an extremely bright five year old niece. When I say extremely, I mean she picks up on EVERYTHING~you can’t say a darned thing around this kid that she doesn’t analyze or pick up on, and now we can’t even spell around her. She’s figured that out too.
Her mom is young and her dad is currently incarcerated (she was overheard recently telling someone that her daddy was ‘currently incorporated’~so the use of six-dollar words don’t trick her either), and she is being raised, therefore, by the team~fortunately it’s a big family and she doesn’t lack for love and attention. But of all of us, I am probably the only true believer when it comes to prayer, etc. Or has any kind of religious upbringing that hasn’t been totally rejected in adulthood.
When she was three and just wanted to know where people and dogs and stuff went when they died and I could talk to her a bit about heaven and stuff, that was simple. But I wear a necklace with an image of the Virgin on it, and she was asking me about it yesterday. She wanted to know how, if she wanted to ask Mary for help, how to do it. Now, I’ve not been a practicing Catholic in a long time, since childhood, though I still pray to the Saints at times and like that. But I wasn’t sure what to say, even though it’s okay with her mother if I talk to her about stuff like this.
She’s the type of kid that wants to know exactly how to do something if she’s going to do it, and I was kind of vague at best. Anyone have any advice at all about this?
Thank you in advance.
This is a child that is very likely not to be raised in any sort of organized religion~I don’t know if that detail is relevant, but I thought I would throw it in there for clarity’s sake if it matters.
MM
