28 November 2007

Ah, the honesty of youth...

Everybody says they love the honesty of kids. And I do too. Even when it "bites me in the butt" so to speak.

Tonight, I was buckling Ben into his carseat to drive home from church (he often rides with me when I'm up in Keller) and he calmly says to me, "Gramma, you are fat." Well, this is true - and something that came up soon after his discovery of the book "One Fish, Two Fish" - remember the line, "This one is fat. This one is thin." Or something to that effect. Anyhoo, soon after that book, Ben asked me, "Gramma, are you the fat one?" It was cute, it was true, it was humerous - it was reality.

Now tonight, I decided that while some things are TRUE, some things are NOT to be pointed out (I was thinking ahead to the inevitable "why does that man have no legs? where is that lady's hair? where is that man's eye?" sort of thing.) So I decided in my best grandparenting voice to do a bit of coaching here. "Yes, Ben - it's true I am fat. But it's not polite to tell people they are fat. You might hurt their feelings." Ben thought about that for a moment and then solemnly announced he was sorry.

I smiled, confident in my "still with it" parenting skills when he then said, "So you're big. Really big."

That's my Ben! Gotta love it!! :)

3 comments:

emily said...

Oy. Props on how you handled it!!

And maybe Ben is just a TAD precocious.

Jenny said...

*blush*

We really don't bring it up at home. I don't know what the obsession is...

Cheri (aka "The Mom Lady") said...

Just to clarify, I am NOT offended that Ben thinks I'm "big, very big". I am and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I thought his PC switch from "fat" to "big" was HILARIOUS!

Ben - he's smart, REALLY smart (and very observant - another reason to be on good terms with your children's Bible Class teachers 'cause the litt'l darlin's are going to tell them all your juicy secrets!! ha!)