Last night we went to my sister's place for 4th of July festivities. The weather forecast included a tornado warning during prime firework time, and we decided to just 'stay in' this time. They live in an area where some of the smaller fireworks are legal, so we picked up two packages at the store.
Their neighbors, however, didn't seem to have much concern for whether their own fireworks were legal, and had a show rivaling my the ones my small town put on when I was a kid. (This raises a whole series of ethical questions for someone watching whose house and car are in danger from lots of flaming debris, but I'm not addressing that this time.) They had very large shoot-up-in-the-air type fireworks, and they were literally right over our heads.
After awhile it started raining, so we quickly finished up our little fireworks and went inside. On the way home, I was talking to my kids about it and asked them if they liked all those fireworks. My 6-yr-old said that he hated them, which seemed strange because he had been laughing with glee when we were doing them. I inquired further, and he said that he hated them because the fireworks turned into rain.
Suddenly all was clear. The huge fireworks the neighbors were shooting off had looked like "rain" falling down, and then he felt rain, so he assumed that the fireworks had turned into rain. Wow. The world through the eyes of a child.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
How Do I Love Thee???
Ever want to tell someone you really love having them around and wish you could spend every day with them? Well, my 9-year-old has just the thing for you.
Today I was talking to him about how sometimes moms and dads fight with each other. (To my knowledge he has probably never heard my husband and I fighting.) I asked if he could imagine a home where mom and dad were yelling and screaming at each other all the time and always fighting, and asked what he would do.
He first said he would play computer games all day because we'd be so busy fighting that we wouldn't stop him. I probed and asked how it would make him feel, and he said that he would like it because maybe then I would leave and he would be able to just be with dad all the time and have lots of fun.
"So you wish I would leave and never come back?" I asked. "No," he said, "not NEVER, but maybe for like a month or something."
To be fair, he is mostly remembering the two weeks that I was gone for my grandmother's funeral when dad took over and was able to take half-days at work, and it happened to be the same time that he had no homework at school because of testing. So dad let him play computer games all the time. Now he is really looking forward to the weekend that I go away for a moms 'retreat.'
He also thinks I'm old and boring. Dad not so much, but mom is pretty old and boring.
Doesn't it just make you want to clone him so you can have one for yourself -- you can just put him on auto-repeat and call it your self affirmation for the day. I love being a mom!!!
Today I was talking to him about how sometimes moms and dads fight with each other. (To my knowledge he has probably never heard my husband and I fighting.) I asked if he could imagine a home where mom and dad were yelling and screaming at each other all the time and always fighting, and asked what he would do.
He first said he would play computer games all day because we'd be so busy fighting that we wouldn't stop him. I probed and asked how it would make him feel, and he said that he would like it because maybe then I would leave and he would be able to just be with dad all the time and have lots of fun.
"So you wish I would leave and never come back?" I asked. "No," he said, "not NEVER, but maybe for like a month or something."
To be fair, he is mostly remembering the two weeks that I was gone for my grandmother's funeral when dad took over and was able to take half-days at work, and it happened to be the same time that he had no homework at school because of testing. So dad let him play computer games all the time. Now he is really looking forward to the weekend that I go away for a moms 'retreat.'
He also thinks I'm old and boring. Dad not so much, but mom is pretty old and boring.
Doesn't it just make you want to clone him so you can have one for yourself -- you can just put him on auto-repeat and call it your self affirmation for the day. I love being a mom!!!
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