One of life's little lessons...

First of all I want to send well wishes to my Mom and my niece, Sophia. We love you both and know you will both feel better soon!


I just got home after a long, tiring but always funny day of teaching pre-school. I really do have the best job ever. Besides getting to shape the minds of 60 young people (scary thought, I know) I am constantly reassured that no matter how crazy I think my kids are, there is always some kid just a tiny bit crazier. Those are the little gems of parenting enlightenment I live for. Plus, the kids at pre-school think I am really fun and smart. Traits that are often overlooked with my own kids.

Take this evening for example, I get home and my kids are watching a very educational episode of "Ned's Declassified" which is explaining to them the pros and cons of dissecting animals for scientific use. This of course, opens up the topic for discussion in our house. Emma is totally against it, "that's so GROSS", and for once, Chloe is in complete agreement. Although her reasons definitely lean more towards animal rights. Emma then asks her dad, "Dad, did you have to dissect a frog in High School?", Yes, of course he did. I wait patiently, knowing I am going to get the same question any minute....still waiting...yep, still waiting. Apparently I am going to have to offer up this info without being prompted. So I say, "Emma, why didn't you ask me if I had to dissect a frog?" Her response, "Well Dad went to college and you didn't." What?! And just to make it clear, I DID go to college. I lasted a whole semester, so there! But, because I'm the adult, I respond, "you asked Dad if he had to dissect the frog in High School, I went to high school too you know!" so Emma begrudgingly, I guess she can sense my desperation to share some of my high school memories, asks "Mom, did you have to dissect a frog?" I proudly reply, "Well I was SUPPOSED to, but I felt it was morally and ethically wrong(plus it was really gross) so I refused to do it!" At this point I am waiting for my daughters to look up at me in awe. Surely they are proud to have such an activist for a Mom. Nope, they of course take every possible negative thing out of what I did to use against me at a later date. After I told Emma that I had refused to dissect the frog, I explained that instead I had to write and essay explaining how I would have done it. Apparently this was the worst punishment that Biology teacher could come up with. Little did he know I LOVE to write! But leave it to Emma to come up with an evil genius plan of her own. She states in her most proud and 8 year old know-it-all voice "well I would just write MY report in my worst handwriting, and if he made me do it again, I would get worse and worse until he couldn't read it at all." So, basically what Emma has decided is that she is not only NOT going to dissect the frog, but she is going to purposely fail the alternate assignment. The whole point of my telling them this story was so that they could see me as their cool, activist Mom, not to encourage them to fail biology. This could really come back to haunt me in a few years, I'll keep you posted.