So sometimes we play this game called, 'Im Thinking of a Person.' Just like I-Spy, only we describe people instead of objects. I know what you're thinking already, and you're right: unless you are Giselle, this is dangerous territory to cross with a three, five and six year old.
Anyway, I gave the following description of someone:
'I'm thinking of a person. He wears khaki shirts and shorts. He has a zoo in Queensland. He helps animals, especially crocodiles...'
'Bindi's dad!' my three year old yells. (Poor Steve is probably turning in his grave that despite a career spent forging his identity as a conservationist and animal lover, he has now been reduced to just 'Bindi's dad.')
So it followed with Jeff Wiggle (purple skivvy, sleeps a lot, etc.) and John Wayne (wears cowboy hat, rides a horse, fights baddies).
Then we got to this description: this person has red hair, and wears lots of black and yells a lot and has big sharp teeth...'
AH! I know! That big sea-witch from 'The Little Mermaid'? Ursula, I think her name is! (Her hair is technically grey, but who am I to correct my three-year-old? It was still a very accurate description.)
But no. It was someone much closer to home. You guessed it: me. Sadly, it's still more flattering than some of the other descriptions my children had given me...
Have you ever read the book John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat. The old lady in the book Rose, is a widow and lives in an old farm house with her fluffy white dog John Brown. She wears her grey hair up in buns and putters around in shapeless dresses topped off with pink fluffy slippers. She feeds the chooks, reads books under a pear tree and knits by the fire at night. It all looks very appealing for retirement but not the picture to project for a yummy-mummy. The first time I read this book to my 3 years old (some years back) he pointed to Rose and said 'Look Mummy - it's you'.
ReplyDeleteI can empathise...Jo
I had a great day reading your valuable post.
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