Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Kid Quotes

As many of you know, most of my deep and meaningful conversations w/ my kids happen in the car, en route to the grocery store, dance class, the doctor.  Yesterday's conversation started out scientific when Madeleine asked, "Mommy, don't lie, is there a man in the moon?"  I answered that there was not but that a man had visited the moon.  This information intrigued her and inspired her to ask futher questions.  This is not really my area - Jason is the science nerd of the family - I am merely the reading, writing and grammar nerd of the family. 
Madeleine:  "What men went to the moon?  Presidents?"
Me:  "No, astronauts."  At least I know that much.
Madeleine:  "Why was George Washington our president?"
I'm glad she switched subjects because I was afraid she was going to ask the name of the man who went to the moon.  I would have said Neil Armstrong but I'm not entirely confident in that answer.
Me:  "Well, he was our president because he fought in an army and helped us gain freedom from another country."
Madeleine:  "Why was Abraham Lincoln our President?"
Me:  "Well, he helped get rid of slavery."
Madeleine: "What is slavery?"
Literally, this is a 7 minute car trip to dance class and it just got real....too real.
Me:  "Slavery is when you own a person and you make them do a lot of things like take care of your land and clean your house all the time.  Those people are slaves"
Madeleine:  (with WAY too much excitement)  LIKE YOU!!!!
Me:  What?
Madeleine:  Like you make us always clean up and clean our rooms......
Nice.....they equate me with slave owners.
Lily:  (sigh)  I'm bored of cleaning my room.  Cleaning rooms is bored.

1 comments:

Soko said...

Someone once told me that 100 years ago people viewed having many children as a blessing because it meant many hands to share the work. Today, we view having many children as a burden because we (the parents) use our four hands to do all of the work for everyone, and we don't expect our kids to do anything. Kudos to you for putting them to work! Maybe your slaves can come show my slaves how it's done! :)