Conversations
Conversation at the dinner table regularly goes something like this
To number one seven year old son… in response to the inevitable "I don’t like this"
- you need to eat or you will get sick,
- I wont get sick,
- you can if you don’t eat properly, your bones and muscles need to grow etc etc blah blah blah
- I do eat properly,
- eating properly means eating meat and vegetables,
- I don’t like meat and vegetables
- just eat it…
He doesn't. I remind myself that it is very unlikely that I will be having the same conversations in a few years time, and that keeping up with the appetite will be the new challenge.
To number two son…
- put that book down it is dinner time...
there is just something wrong with telling a child to stop reading…
To number two daughter who had alternated all day between vomiting and complaining of being hungry,
- You dont have to eat it all, just eat a little bit
- but I will be sick,
- but you will be hungry,
I hear the nonsense parenting voice come out of my mouth and wonder when that happened.
Time for a wine I think…
Next morning woken up by two wee hands either side of my head, two very close brown eyes inches from my own, ‘Mummy does 50 times 50 equal 1000?’. Although my brain is screaming that this is not the time for doing maths equations, I drowsily hear myself mumble I don’t think so, 5 x 5 is 25 remember then add on the two zeros. 20 times 50 is 1000. 2 times 5 etc... This last coment is unecessary, as he's already gone off to (most likely) brag to his brother. Impressed at my own ability to a) respond kindly and b) do the maths, I venture off to find a calculator to check.
Later in the morning my ipod is shuffling through Michael Jackson, opera and pop music, and a worship song comes on. Seven year old E attempts to increase the volume. I ask him if he likes this song. He does. I point out that that the singer is singing to God, to which he replies, I think I know that mum, reminding me that little boys have dual needs for God and to have one over their mother.
To number one seven year old son… in response to the inevitable "I don’t like this"
- you need to eat or you will get sick,
- I wont get sick,
- you can if you don’t eat properly, your bones and muscles need to grow etc etc blah blah blah
- I do eat properly,
- eating properly means eating meat and vegetables,
- I don’t like meat and vegetables
- just eat it…
He doesn't. I remind myself that it is very unlikely that I will be having the same conversations in a few years time, and that keeping up with the appetite will be the new challenge.
To number two son…
- put that book down it is dinner time...
there is just something wrong with telling a child to stop reading…
To number two daughter who had alternated all day between vomiting and complaining of being hungry,
- You dont have to eat it all, just eat a little bit
- but I will be sick,
- but you will be hungry,
I hear the nonsense parenting voice come out of my mouth and wonder when that happened.
Time for a wine I think…
Next morning woken up by two wee hands either side of my head, two very close brown eyes inches from my own, ‘Mummy does 50 times 50 equal 1000?’. Although my brain is screaming that this is not the time for doing maths equations, I drowsily hear myself mumble I don’t think so, 5 x 5 is 25 remember then add on the two zeros. 20 times 50 is 1000. 2 times 5 etc... This last coment is unecessary, as he's already gone off to (most likely) brag to his brother. Impressed at my own ability to a) respond kindly and b) do the maths, I venture off to find a calculator to check.
Later in the morning my ipod is shuffling through Michael Jackson, opera and pop music, and a worship song comes on. Seven year old E attempts to increase the volume. I ask him if he likes this song. He does. I point out that that the singer is singing to God, to which he replies, I think I know that mum, reminding me that little boys have dual needs for God and to have one over their mother.
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