Saturday, April 12, 2008

Am I the Only One?


Alright all you moms out there, do your kids ever say something that totally frightens you? I had a couple experiences this week that made me realize that Mikey and Natty are apparently taking in every single thing that I say, think or do. Which realization immediately sent me into a panicked frenzy, searching through my mental Rolodex for anything I may have said/done in the past week that I wouldn't want my kids noticing and repeating. I don't think I fully comprehend just how much these little munchkins understand. I often catch myself talking to Chad about "grown up" things under the assumption that the kids aren't listening, and if they are, that they won't understand anyway. Hey--get your minds out of the gutter guys! I'm not referring to anything like that. Just conversation about things that they don't need to know or be worried about. Here's some examples from this week alone:

We went to dinner with some friends Tuesday night. Their family consists of a stay-at-home mom, a dad and a five year old boy, who we'll call Chris. This week Chris announced that "If Hillary wins, we're moving to Canada" and later "Hillary is evil." Chris is five. Chris' dad is an AP Government teacher. Yep. I'm guessing Dad and Chris share a lot of the same political views.

Later on in the week, Chad was sitting in his office, working. Natalie ran in and asked, "Dad, did you send your work to Max?" Um...what? Max is Chad's immediate supervisor at Lynda.com. Lynda's main offices are in Ojai, California. Natalie hasn't met Max. Natalie hasn't been to the Lynda offices. I can barely remember Max's name, and Chad talks to me about his work all the time. How on earth did Natalie know that? She can't remember what comes between "R" and "T" in the Alphabet song, but she knows the names of all of Chad's supervisors? Maybe I need to put more effort into this whole "home schooling" thing.

Last example. Chad and I LOVE to watch "The Soup" with Joel McHale on Friday nights. If you've never watched it, you totally should. It is so incredibly hilarious. And Joel is a Seattle native, so you have a moral obligation to support his career anyhow. Anyways, we totally love the show and never miss a Friday night. So, Friday morning Mikey bellies up to the counter for breakfast and says, "So, you watching The Soup tonight?" Yikes. That show is on at like 10:30 pm. Mikey goes to bed at 7pm. How does he know what we're doing 3 1/2 hours past his supposed nightly retirement? Scary. Which begs the question, what else does he know?

I guess I'm rambling. It's really not that big of a deal. So, my kids know a few names and habits from my life. Not that serious. It just makes me wonder how much else they know. What all are they noticing, processing and regurgitating? Am I going to have to pay thousands of dollars in the future for therapy to treat things they're picking up on now? Thank goodness I don't cuss. Heaven knows I don't need one more thing to worry about them picking up on!

2 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I've seen similar things occur with my youngest sister. There are some shows (mostly seen on Nickelodean/Disney) which she's not allowed to watch. These shows are (supposedly) geared towards her age group and aren't really (obviously) bad, but there are some undesirable personality traits in the main characters that my sister will emulate. It's very interesting how if she were a few years older this wouldn't be a problem because she would be able to distinguish between which behaviors were appropriate and which were not, but at 10 years old she doesn't do that yet.
But really, I don't think you have too much to be concerned about! You (and your husband) are wonderful and I'm sure your kids pick up on your good habits/personality traits.
:D