4-year old Carter Lawson can’t wait to hear the sound of his friend’s van approaching his house in Knoxville, Tennessee. Every day, the little boy waits for his buddy to come and take him to make the rounds delivering the mail in the neighborhood.
Postman Mike, also known as Mike Crenshaw, has been the mailman of the neighborhood for about nine months. Apparently, he and Carter hit it off as soon as they met each other and have since been good friends- and co-workers in a way.
Carter doesn’t want to be Superman or Batman when he grows up, but he prefers to be Mailman! That’s why he accompanies Postman Mike every morning in the mail delivery around the neighborhood.
“We just hit it off” Crenshaw said. “You never know who you’re gonna become friends with. It could be a 4-year-old child, it could be a 94-year-old man.”
As he explains, Carter’s neighborhood is at the end of his day and it is actually the best part of his day, not just because it’s the end of it, but also because he meets Carter and he spends time with him having fun while doing his job.
As Carter’s mom said, “How often do you go somewhere doing your job and somebody is that excited to see you every single time you get there?” And it’s true. Many people don’t have this privilege of being a kid’s hero, someone to look up to.
Crenshaw told his co-workers about Carter and they were amazed by the boy’s reaction and love of the mailman’s job, so they decided to invite him over to the Post Office to witness the sorting process and learn details about how mail is sorted and delivered. So Carter visited them and had so much fun, while post office workers were fascinated with how keen he was on the job.
Now, Carter is officially Postman Mike’s helper every day. They even wear matching outfits when delivering the mail.
This one is not the first time a little child is fascinated by people who do seemingly regular jobs and lead ordinary lives, instead of having as role models celebrities and rich people. For instance, a few years ago a toddler made it to the news due to his special friendship with a garbage man in Texas. The boy had even dressed up as his friend for Halloween.
Psychologists claim that having role models growing up is crucial to children’s development. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), it is important to reinforce positive behavior to children and discuss with them what a role model is/should be, as well as the fact that even role models can have a positive and a negative side. Additionally, since children tend to imitate their parents’ and caregivers’ behavior, psychiatrists suggest that parents take time to encourage their children to “become involved in activities that reflect [their] values”.
In this case, looking up to a postman who works hard to make a living and who is also kind to children sounds like a reasonable thing to do.
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