Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Sorry for such a long absence, but I just haven't felt too inspired to write. And while I'm not sure it's incredibly exciting, I thought I'd share a few conversations with my oldest child.

Anna: Can I go outside to play?
Me: Do you have any homework?
Anna: No
Me: Why don't you pull out your agenda so I can see what you've been up to at school.
Anna: Oh, yeah, I do have a test tomorrow.
Me: Shouldn't you study for it? You said you didn't have homework.
Anna: I don't have homework.
Me: What do you call studying for a test?
Anna: A choice.

As for the next story, I'll provide a little background info and then sum it up. There are several members on the paternal side of my family who have this somewhat ridiculous work ethic that sometimes makes it very difficult for us to say no to certain responsibilities. Some of us even volunteer for certain jobs because we're afraid that they may not get done if we don't do something.

This explanation leads to me to the following story. Recently Anna shared with me that she was tired of taking her class' lunch cart, because as a result of taking on this task, she was the last one to eat and then didn't have much time to eat her lunch. She said that no one had the job of taking the cart to the cafeteria so she kept doing it. The purpose of the lunch cart is to give students who bring their lunch a place to leave their lunch boxes on the way to recess. I thought of a simple solution -- don't take the cart on a day when she doesn't bring her lunch. However, she wouldn't agree to this because then no one would take the cart and people might lose their lunch boxes. She has been cursed with my family's over-active sense of responsibility. However, I do have hope for her because she has already taken the important step of telling her teacher she did not want to do it anymore, and the teacher agreed to find someone else to be responsible for the cart.

I'm sure there will be many more interesting conversations with my daughter. She has already begun questioning me about certain coming-of-age issues, and so far I've survived. We'll see how the year progresses.