Smoothies, to be or not to be.
“Tell me something you think about, Tyler,” my mom asks him.
“I think about Wow Wow Wubzy.” This is the current rage at my house, which kind of astounds me because it’s a program designed for preschoolers. But if they want to settle in for cute, cuddly, and benign stories about cooperation and friendship, then who am I to push other (more stimulating) options?
“No, tell me something you think about. Something not on TV. Tell me something going on in your noggin.”
“Well, I think about my day.”
“Yeah? Tell me the best thing about your day.”
“The best thing about today was my Mommy-15.”
(Mommy-15 is when each boy gets 15 minutes with mom, we can do anything he chooses, and the only rule is Don’t Interrupt Your Brother’s Mommy-15.)
“Do you know what we did for my Mommy-15? We made blueberry smoothies. And I had some, and Mommy had some, and we shared some with Tucker, and it was so delicious. And we only spilled one drop.”
My mom relayed this story to me at the end of a long day, under the headline of “Tricia, let me tell you the best thing you did today.”
That would have indeed been the best part of the day . . . if it had happened.
“Mom, that didn’t happen. He made that up.”
“You’re kidding?!”
“I’m not kidding. He begged and begged me to make smoothies with him, he listed all the ingredients, he even got out the blender. I told him we couldn’t do it today. We didn’t have all the ingredients, and I didn’t have the time. So his favorite part of today didn’t really happen.”
He made it all up, including the details of one small spill and abundant quality time. None of that happened.
I’m not really sure what to do with this.
What does it mean for him to tell such an extravagant story of something we didn’t do together?
What do I do with the guilt I now feel for saying no over what he wanted to do most, what he claimed as the best part of his day?
What do I do with this budding storyteller who can spin and tale so quickly, including the details that nobody will question?
Well, I’ll tell you one thing: you can bet your sweet bippy we made smoothies this morning. Strawberry Pineapple.
We really did.
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godsbabygirlx says:
Wow that broke my heart because it reminded me of all the times I’ve told my kids no when I really could have said yes. Good for you on the strawberry pineapple smoothies!!
Susan Rafferty DuBose says:
(Teary typing…) I noticed when we did church nursery when our son was a toddler that the kids who climbed up in my husband’s lap weren’t the ones who were longing for snuggles and story-reading; they were the ones who were used to being snuggled and read to. Tyler knew it’s happened in the past and it WILL happen again in the future. Good on you, Mommy!
Kathleen says:
We get some imaginative tales around here as well. Sometimes they are easy to spot… based on a book we’ve read. Other times they aren’t. We’ve had a number of conversations about how wonderful it is to pretend with the imagination God has given us, and how important it is to be completely honest. That isn’t an easy balance… even for adults 🙂
My take on the story: He loves to spend time with you. You made sure make smoothies the next day when you realized how important it was for him. Mixed in with all the sweet adorableness, is the sin nature every child is born with. Parenting isn’t an easy task, but it is a God given one. So with Christ’s help, you CAN do it.
Kathleen says:
Aack! There’s also a misplaced comma.
Kathleen says:
*to make
Christine O. says:
I think he takes after his Mom’s literary talents. LOL For the kidless me, I just love these stories!
Jaimie T says:
That would kind of scare me. I just got out of a relationship with a pathological liar so I’m kind of leery of even friendly made-up stories. She would make up stuff to make herself sound more popular or endearing. Yeah… an odd kind of messed up. It’s hard to be angry at her, except for the fact that she doesn’t trust me to like her for who she actually is?
Carol Keller says:
It’s called “imagination.” I had a boy who, at about the same age, could spin wonderful tales. It took some doing to get him to understand the difference between what really happened and what happened in his mind. In certain instances the truth is required!