Out of the Mouths of Babes
By Summer Bacon
Yup, I’m proud of my kids. Please excuse me while I indulge in telling you another story about my daughters.
You see, they’ve had to weather the storm of Mom’s career choice (er...should I say, the career chose me). In the early days they had to accept the fact that 10-30 strangers might show up at an open session on any given Wednesday morning to watch spooks speaking using Mommy’s mouth! They’ve worried about what to tell their friends when asked, “What does your Mom do for a living?” There were the inevitable cruelties at school, “My Mom says your Mom is a witch!” And, there were the times that Dr. Peebles talked to them—and sometimes even exposed their secrets, like the time he shocked my youngest daughter when she was seven years old by talking about how she would sneak off to play in the arroyo down the street (and I didn’t even know it!)
They also, like so many kids today, speak their own incredible words of wisdom…like little angels incarnate. My youngest daughter, Bobbi, has an incredible knack for setting me straight.
One day, feeling distraught and frightened, I sat on the floor crying. Bobbi, who was two at the time, was in the other room (I thought) watching Mr. Rogers. Unexpectedly, Bobbi appeared in my lap and sat gently stroking my face.
“Mommy? We love our chother, don’t we?” she said softly.
“Yes, we do,” I said, cherishing the way she said “our chother” for “each other.”
“Mommy?” she said, intensely serious, “The whole world should love their chother, shouldn’t they?"
Needless to say, my tears of sadness and fear turned to tears of awe at the wisdom and purity of a child.
Yup, I’m proud of my kids. Please excuse me while I indulge in telling you another story about my daughters.
You see, they’ve had to weather the storm of Mom’s career choice (er...should I say, the career chose me). In the early days they had to accept the fact that 10-30 strangers might show up at an open session on any given Wednesday morning to watch spooks speaking using Mommy’s mouth! They’ve worried about what to tell their friends when asked, “What does your Mom do for a living?” There were the inevitable cruelties at school, “My Mom says your Mom is a witch!” And, there were the times that Dr. Peebles talked to them—and sometimes even exposed their secrets, like the time he shocked my youngest daughter when she was seven years old by talking about how she would sneak off to play in the arroyo down the street (and I didn’t even know it!)
They also, like so many kids today, speak their own incredible words of wisdom…like little angels incarnate. My youngest daughter, Bobbi, has an incredible knack for setting me straight.
One day, feeling distraught and frightened, I sat on the floor crying. Bobbi, who was two at the time, was in the other room (I thought) watching Mr. Rogers. Unexpectedly, Bobbi appeared in my lap and sat gently stroking my face.
“Mommy? We love our chother, don’t we?” she said softly.
“Yes, we do,” I said, cherishing the way she said “our chother” for “each other.”
“Mommy?” she said, intensely serious, “The whole world should love their chother, shouldn’t they?"
Needless to say, my tears of sadness and fear turned to tears of awe at the wisdom and purity of a child.