Liam's favorite story right now is Cinderella. He requests it almost every night. He snuggles up next to me & doesn't move a muscle. Michael pretends to be uninterested but the part where the mice mend her dress sucks him in every time.
At the end of tonight's dramatic reading (by yours truly), Michael asked, "Why does Cinderella marry that guy?" Feeling perhaps a bit cynical, I replied, "I don't know- hopefully she liked him. Maybe they should have dated a while before getting married."
(In my mind, I am thinking, "Why did I just say that to my 3 and 4 year old? This is just a fairy tale and I have plenty of time to worry about reinforcing stereotypical gender roles, unrealistic expectations, the notion that women are helpless & men need to save them, blah, blah, blah)
Michael thinks for just a moment. I can see the rat running on the wheel inside his head.
Then he says, "Maybe she wanted to have a baby"
I was kind of relieved--mostly because I thought he was going to say that maybe she was already PREGNANT. Even though I'm not sure he knows that exact term- I thought he might suggest that in his own words.
So I just let that slide for a minute and he went onto say, "Well, you had babies". Then the conversation turned to our family and how much I love my babies and I was off the hook.
But while I was folding some laundry, I got to thinking- Did Cinderella have a shotgun wedding?* And how am I going to explain more complex issues to my kids? Because while I want them to understand our values/beliefs, children have been born "out of wedlock" within our families so I don't want them to be judgmental. Let's hope we can ease into these discussions...
Maybe I do need to get a job--and speaking of that, I haven't heard ANYTHING after that interview even though I followed up. I guess I will cross that prospect off my list (which means that I no longer have a prospect list).
*I don't think Cinderella had a shotgun wedding. The two of them danced all night in plain view of everyone at the ball & she had that damned curfew. And let's face it, the prince already loved her and if you were Cinderella, anything would be better than living with those 3 beeyotchy women. Even if you had nice little mouse friends. And yes, I am accepting suggestions for what type of hobby I can pick up- because I am clearly in need of one ;)
1 comment:
Hilarious! I know what you mean about stumbling through these conversations at this point. Katy sometimes plays with a family two doors down that is a blended family, and the other day she said that she was a step-sister because she was the oldest. I corrected her, saying that wasn't what step sister meant. So of course she asked what DOES it mean. Which is a really hard concept to explain "well, their mommy and daddy used to be married to different mommies and daddies and had babies with them first and then married each other and now..." I ended up saying that they had different mommies and daddies but lived together now. Then she was clearly anxious about why the original mommies and daddies didn't live together anymore. Too deep.
Post a Comment