Last night, I was in the car with Spencer. I am fairly sure that this particular child of mine has nothing better to do then sit up at night and think up random questions to ask me in rapid succession anytime we have car time together.
Last night he decided to ask me about my job. "Mom, why do we have two parents that work in our family?" The way he worded the question kind of put me on the defensive. You see, I have been raised in a culture where we moms are encouraged to stay home with our children and, though I consider myself a good parent, it is true that I do work outside the home.
So, I took a deep breath and started to explain to him about my job. I explained that my boys are the most important thing to me in the world and that Mom only works outside of the home for just 7 hours a week because she really likes to be a Math teacher and she feels that it probably makes her a better Mom to be able to get some time away as well. Then, I stupidly added that Mom really doesn't bring in much money anyway and she works more for fun than money. I don't know why I added this last tidbit. It really wasn't information that a six year old needed to know, but it was too late. The next round of questions was already on their way.
"So, Mom, how much money do you make?"
"Um, just not a lot. Dad makes most of the money in our family."
"How much money does Dad make?"
"He makes enough to take care of our family."
After several similar questions in which I gave similarly vague answers, he finally settled down into deep thought. I thought maybe the subject had died down and we could move on to more important things like who had pulled a ticket in class that day and who had chased who at recess. I even broke the silence myself by asking him about his book order from class.
He answered with, "Mom, I just have one more question about your job. Why do you work a job where you don't make very much money?"
"Well, because I like to be a teacher."
"Mom. I think you ought to get a better job. You're a pretty smart Mom and I bet you get a job where you could make a lot of money......and then you could buy me more stuff."
Great.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I think you should get a better job where you make more money so that you can buy ME more stuff!
Wait...can I be on the list too? I really want a house.
I love it. Kids are WAY smarter than we think, and they focus on different things than we do. You stress about your child possibly saying, "Why aren't you playing trucks with me every single moment of the day?" while he's thinking, "How can I get mom to buy me more trucks?"
How darling, kids can be so honest.
That is so neat you are still teaching. I can only imagine how busy, yet rewarding your life must be.
Post a Comment