I took Gaston to mass this morning for the first time. It was a delight. Normally I go with Maxime who is somewhat more turbulent. The only real way I can get Maxime to sit still for an hour is if I take a Santa Claus size sack of toys and a full pack of chocolate biscuits (and even with that we still have to pay a visit to the candles and also the choir loft). Gaston on the other hand was delighted to sit on papa’s knee for the full duration. A crust of bread and solitary pencil was all that was needed and even then, I would contend that pencil was overkill. The whole episode got me thinking. It is fairly obvious that I will now be more tempted to take Gaston on a Sunday rather than his more active brother. However I wonder if this is the right response – surely a parent must be able to take a child into any environment and expect appropriate behavior. Furthermore I also started to wonder if you can really change the inherent nature of someone – even if I forced Maxime into a childhood of Sunday services and Gaston into twenty years of debauchery and night clubs, as soon as they left home would they not just revert to type… I suspect I am just realizing the age old nature versus nurture trade-off that all parents before me have had to face. Given that I do think that you should be able to take a child into a range of different environments I suspect that Maxime is destined for a few more religious outings and that the share price of United Biscuits (http://www.unitedbiscuits.com/brands-page.php) is not going to crash when the markets open tomorrow morning.
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