5 posts tagged “kids”
Jon: Butterfly, why are you so itchy?
Butterfly: I don't know.
Butterfly walks into my room
Butterfly: Mom, why is this so itchy scratchy?
Me: Because it is made out of wool.
Butterfly: What's wool?
Me: Well, your tshirt is made out of cotton that grows on plants. They spin it to make thread and use the thread to make fabric. You can do the same thing with wool. It is the fur on sheep and they cut it off and...
Butterfly runs out screaming at the top of her lungs
Butterfly: Johnny! I'm itchy cuz I'm full of sheep!
And in a completely unrelated incident, I found a note from Butterfly stuck to my computer screen:
![Dear Mom, if Dad dies tell him I [heart] him.](http://static.flickr.com/90/270994602_766f54372a_m.jpg)
Originally published at kristyk.org. You can comment here or there.
I am stricter than a lot of parents I know. But if I let little things slide, eventually I get an avalanche. Usually sooner rather than later. When you are dealing with a lot of kids [and seven counts as a lot!], order is the name of the game. When we were living in Chicago, Mike came home with a painted chicken that says 'because I'm the momma, that's why'. It has been hanging in my kitchen for seven years now. Mia bought me a sign on vacation that also has a place in the kitchen:
Recently, one of the kids was being sarcastic and said 'it's a free country'. Not in my house it isn't!If I cook it...........................you eat it.
If I buy it...........................you wear it.
If I wash it...................you put it away.
If I clean it..................you keep it clean.
If I say bed time......you say good night.
If I say get off the phone...you hang up.
If I say no................you don't ask why.
'CAUSE I'M THE MOM
Butterfly's first grade class is learning about the Constitution. She brought home a fill in the blank book she had made. One of the pages required them to write a sentence and draw a picture about why they liked being free. She wrote: "I like being free because I like to play with my dog." I pointed out that we didn't have a dog. "I know," she said. "But that was the only thing I could think of that free people do. If I was free, I would get a dog." I let that one go, because... you never know what they're thinking. I'm still pretty sick, so I wasn't ready to get into a full fledged discussion about freedom with a six year old. I turned the page and saw several pictures of signs: Women Vote! The right to go to school! No slavery! Freedom of Speech! Underneath was another fill in the blank section. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution in 1701. I like having the right to lisin to my MOM. I started laughing. "You like having the right to listen to me?" She rolled her eyes. "That's the only thing I can do. (sigh) I'm not really free." Not as long as you live under MY roof, anyway...
We live on one of the main roads in our town and get lots of traffic driving by. The kids will write things on this board [ 'Honk if you're a dad', 'Honk if you're hungry', 'Honk if you voted', etc. ] and hold it up for oncoming traffic to read. They never get tired of it and have competitions to see who can get the most honks.
My baby isn't a baby anymore.
