We’ve all heard someone say it or said it ourselves - “I wish kids came with instructions.” But really, do we? Of course we don’t…it would just be one more thing for us to follow, one more schedule and one more set of rules to worry about breaking. I have a hard enough time trying to look past the instructions everyone else imposes on me at work, at home, at school and on how I raise my child. Which brings me to my point, my child. I feel beaten down and tired of picking him up from his sitter each day to hear that he’s “ornery” – he’s not bad, just ornery. Ornery, what does that mean? Well I’ve finally discovered what that means and what I find so fantastic about my son - it means he has a mind of his own. He’s considered  “ornery” because he challenges – he says no when he doesn’t want something and asks “why” every time he’s told to do something. But can you blame him? I do the same thing. I’ve realized that it means he’s thinking, he gets it and he is trying to understand the world around him. He’s a kid with so much to learn and a world without instructions so he’s trying to make his own. Now instead of getting frustrated when I hear today he was “ornery” I smile inside and know that means his wheels are turning and he’s working on his plan to conquer the world and that’s cool. So if our kids came with instructions I wouldn’t read them.