I wrote a Mother’s Day post for eumom and hadn’t intended to write another one here, but then my six year old told me about a game they had played in school – all about mums. Taking her turn along with each of her classmates, she was asked to tell everyone what her mother’s name is and something her mother likes. I was immediately curious – what had she said I like? My mind raced ahead, hoping she hadn’t said wine. But no, she had said “My mummy loves collecting me from school on a Thursday and Friday”
Oh! What a lovely answer I thought – I love that she knows how much I enjoy the Thursday and Friday school-runs, and I love that against the odds, she didn’t pick “coffee” or “cake” or “wine” as the answer. Kids are wiser than we give them credit for.
So I decided to ask her a few more Mother’s Day type questions and to write down the answers:
OK, what else would you say your mum likes?
You like gardening
Do I? When did you see me gardening?
You like sitting in the garden in the sun
Ah yes, that’s true. Anything else?
You like collecting me, giving me kisses, taking photos, drinking tea and coffee, chocolate – a bit. And your kids.
Can’t argue with that. And what do I not like?
You don’t like when your tea goes cold
What’s the best thing about being a mum do you think?
You get to make up your own rules. Nobody tells you what to do. I don’t like the way people tell kids what to do, especially when they already know what they’re doing.
What rules would you make?
That anyone aged zero, one, two, three or four isn’t allowed to use markers.
Would you like to be a mum?
Yes but I know I’ll only have two kids.
Oh, why do you think that?
Because your mum had four kids, and you had three kids, so I’ll have two – that’s how it goes
Ah, I see (followed by side conversation explaining that that’s not how it works). So if you could choose, how many kids would you have?
I’d have five kids – I think it would be nice to take care of five kids, and I could shop for lots of clothes for them.
What’s the difference between mums and dads?
Dads play more football and mums play more tea-parties
I’m sensing a theme here …
Also, dads do more building and mums do more cleaning
Really?
Yes, dads do kind of messy work and mums like clean work
Well yes that might be a bit true in our house. What do you think I’d change in my life if I could?
You’d get more sleep. And not have to work
Do you think I don’t like working?
Yeah – no more cleaning and housework, you wish you didn’t have to do that work
Hmm so that’s my “work” – that might go hand in hand with the time she told me that if I gave up my job I could become a cleaner because I am very good at cleaning (which isn’t even true)
Time to quit while we’re ahead I think. Happy Mother’s Day!