Deep Thoughts

I get asked questions ALL DAY LONG. Sometimes I just want to beg them to stop talking for a second. Sometimes I have even asked for a 'minute of silence' while I back out of our absurdly narrow garage (and looking at the scratches on the corners of the car will give you an idea of how many times I actually got that silence). I try to answer the questions as honestly as I can while still being age appropriate. At the same time, I don't want to lie if I can avoid it, because those little hard drives don't have much on it, so they tend to store EVERY FREAKING THING I SAY for recall later. But sometimes even I don't know how to answer what comes out of their mouths:

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C and D were asking me to play a game with them. I said I would as soon as I finished cleaning up the kitchen. They started talking to each other about the things that I do, which included cleaning up the kitchen. D turns to me, looks me straight in the eye, and asks:

"Is it boring being an adult?"

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C was recently sitting in the playroom drawing when she looked at me, and with complete earnestness asked, "Mom am I EVER going to be a mermaid?"

(It broke my heart to think of the day she finds out the truth. I am going to feel like I have robbed her of her youth. Santa-shmanta, the mermaid revelation is going to be life altering).

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C: "Do I have to marry a boy?"

Me: "Not at all. Girls can marry girls and boys can marry boys."

C: "Can I marry Dylan?"

(Explaining why she can't is actually harder than you might think w/o bringing genetics into the discussion btw. The reason she liked best was "No because then your kids would only get two grandparents. And what's the fun in that?" Sweeter still was that she declared that she had 5 grandparents "Grandpa Michael in heaven too.")

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A little girl in their school's parents are going through a divorce. They know this because Ava tells them that she goes to her Daddy's house sometimes and her Mommy's other times.

C: "Ava's parents live in separate houses. Why?"

I tried to explain that sometimes people love each other but are happier when they live in separate houses. I explained that sometimes after people get married they change and they no longer like living together. I think I threw in some more dribble, but that was the gist.

Then C thinks a bit more and says.

"Ava's Daddy picked her up from school. He does that sometimes. Why does she see her Daddy more than we see our Daddy?"

(In other words, "How the hell do I get rid of YOU?" Nice).

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At some point C was telling me that some of the kids thought so and so's Daddy looked scary but that so and so really loved her Daddy. I couldn't help myself:

Me: "How do you know they think X is scary?"

C: "Because the kids say so?"

Me: "That is too bad. Do people think I am scary?"

C: (Kinda shrugging her shoulders) "No, some people think you look ok."

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The other day I am sitting with C and she looks at me, earnestly, and asks:

"Mom what happens when you marry the wrong person?"

Once again I stumbled through some answer about how you decide not to be married anymore and hopefully, if you want, you someday find the right person to marry. At the end of the discussion she looks at me, earnestly again, and asks

"Mom, when did we start talking about this?"

I don't know sweetheart, I really don't.

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The other day we were driving and D busts out with:

"What happens if you are in prison, and you die?"