Lately, Amy, my 5-year-old, is vexed with choosing her life mate.
Amy - Grade 4K
For the longest time – well, “long” for her age, which translates into weeks and months — she was planning on marrying the cute little boy across the street. He’s a good 2+ years younger than her, but the age difference has never been an issue. Honestly, I think she likes the fact that she’s older than him, and therefore naturally more worldly. Being the “little sister,” that’s a welcome change, I imagine. They have plenty in common, too: a love of fruit snacks and cupcakes, and most anything WonderPets and Disney-related (though I’ve heard the young lad is currently a rabid Team Umizoomi fan – he’s got quite the dance for it!); etc.
Until recently, that was enough for her.
Wellll…. Then she went and fell for a classmate. Maybe she was motivated by their common experiences, classroom and playground alike, and she did say that he was “very funny, like me!” (which, translated, really means that just like her, he *thinks* he’s really funny, and whether anyone else laughs at his jokes or silliness is completely irrelevant).
Luckily, I’m a really laid-back parent and don’t take these things any too seriously. Given my own emotional stability (*cough*) and my progressive feminist attitudes (I might do the laundry, but I draw the line at putting it away), I refuse to imagine romantic transience (aka slutty-ness) will be prominent in her future.
Never one to be boring, Amy has had yet another idea for a mate.
I should preface this by telling you that most weekend nights — Fridays and Saturdays that is – Kate (age 7) and Amy sleep together in Kate’s room. At the moment, this means they sleep together in Kate’s twin bed. (They would both sacrifice a limb for a set of bunk beds, but that’s not really in the budget at the moment. Plus: they look so adorable all wrapped in bed together, like a little double-stuffed burrito, or maybe two little Twinkies laid side-by-side. [and geez! We don’t even EAT Twinkies! And yet, here I am drooling for one.])
A few days ago, after another weekend of mild slumber-partying (Kate usually reads to Amy until they fall asleep, or they play Leapster Explorer/Nintendo DS and switch back and forth between the levels each is best at), Amy approached Hubby (aka Daddy) with yet another marital-related thought.
She loves her sister Kate so much that she’d really like to marry her.
Now I believe that sometimes, God just gives you the perfect window for discussing life lesson and values, right?? And being the savvy, insightful parent that I am (~ahem~), I am quick to seize a teaching moment. But in Hubby’s worldview? Not so much. He’s better with pep talks, motors, corny jokes, and complex spreadsheets (each valuable in their own way, might I add).
But alas, he did NOT see Amy’s statement as a wide-open opportunity to teach openness and acceptance at an early age.
His response to her? “Wellllll, I don’t think that the marrying-your-sister thing is legally recognized in most states.”
REALLY?????? That’s what he got from her newest marriage-related proclamation?
But…. Funny thing about my daughter. She was not the least phased by Daddy’s statement. You see, she relayed her “take-away” from her conversation with Daddy to me over lunch.
She would really like to move to a different state.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
My kids are 6 and 8. They were crushed when we told them they couldn’t get married (to each other), so they are just going to live by each other and get jobs at the same place “so we can carpool”.
LOL Jen – that’s adorable.
Kate has already told me she’s moving in a few houses away, and that I can babysit her kids when she’s a mom. Gotta treasure these times, right?
I think Cooper is over the Amy not wanting to marry him thing. He now wants to marry Claire since she let him go down the sled with her.
I knew Coop would recover quickly. Nice to hear he might be keeping his options within the family, still, though.
Umm…do you ever wonder about the things you will be writing in, say 10, years?
Seriously, kids are so awesome and unassuming…love is simply love to them…it’s just beautiful and innocent and joyful. What a great thing to experience these feelings without the confines of “normalcy” and sex and adulthood…our kids remind us that maybe we loved this way once, too.
PS…by that, I mean our little children and not our children who may have become teen-age boys…these teen-age boy children do not precipitate the same feelings of innocent love and joy…they may actually keep us feeling jaded until grandchildren come into the picture!