What is a Vet ?

Our morning started off with a little conversation in preparation for watching the Veteran’s Day Parade.   What is a veteran ?

1. A vet .
2. A veterinarian
3. A person that takes care of animals when they are sick
4. A doctor for animals

I didn’t really expect them to know what a veteran is .  I was even a little leery of using the traditional terms to explain.  Usually we say that vets  fight for our freedom.  Children have one view in their heads of ” fighting ” and they can’t grasp the concept of freedom.   Finally I settled on including our Conscious Discipline language and said veterans are ” safe keepers .” They keep us safe.

We made signs to hold up as the veterans rode past us in the parade  . They said ” Thank you for your service ” and ” Thank you for keeping us safe.”

We talked about the things that would make it more safe for us while we walked.  There were 7 adults and 13 children so each adult safe keeper  helped two children.  We used the new side walks to get downtown .  That was SOOO much more safe than the old side walks.  We talked about standing up when our American Flag was presented in the parade.  Small town America at it’s best.  This is what memories are made of.

As the parade participants rode by the littles yelled “Thanks for keeping us safe.”

My heart melted.