A Child's Perspective

When Monkey asks a question and I don't know the answer, his answer used to be be: "But you're a nurse, you know lots of fings". The other day, we went somewhere and my husband and I were chatting with a nurse. When I mentioned that I was a nurse too, Monkey spouted off with this little zinger: "Nuh-Uh, You used to be a nurse. Now you work in a prison. So you're not a nurse anymore".

Try explaining to your six year old that you are still a nurse even if you don't work in a hospital, or go to people's home's to help them (Home Health). Then try explaining that you don't work in a prison, but in a Sex Offender's Rehabilitation and Treatment Facility, but you don't want to say "Sex Offender" because that opens a whole 'nuther can of worms that you must explain to said six year old. He has seen the razor wire and locked gates around the buildings where I am employed, so therefore, to him it is a prison. You can't tell him that these guys have done their time in the pen, but must stay in a secure setting until they are deemed safe to be on "the outside". It is really pretty complicated for adults to understand, much less a kid.

So you stutter and stumble through your words until the nurse you were talking to you looks at you like, "Um, yeah, you're a nurse. Your kid just busted you, lady".

So today I was driving him to school and he observed that the moon and the sun were out at the same time. Then he asked why. My memory of planets, the moon and sun and rotation and stuff is pretty dim. I know the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening. I know the moon comes out at night. What I don't remember is how and why. I have often wondered myself about the sun and moon being out at the same time, so I told him we would look it up tonight after school. Then we would both know the answer.

From the back seat, I heard him sigh. Then, "But Mom, you're a photographer. You are supposed to know lots of fings".

I give up.