I like children a lot. Therefore, this semester I have been babysitting a lot. It's fun to hang out with the kids, play with Play Do, sing silly songs, and have funny conversations.
Well last week, I was watching James and Charlotte, two kids that I see probably once a week. We were at the dinner table and James and I had one of the most interesting conversastions. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Sara: James, please eat your green beans.
James: But they're making my tummy scratchy.
Sara: Well why don't you just eat four or five more of them. Once you eat them you get to have some macaroni and cheese.
James: But my tummy is scratchy. Maybe I need to go to the hospital and get a tube put in me.
Sara: What will they do with the tube?
James: They will take out my poop.
Sara: Oh really?
James: Yeah. And at the hospital, that's where they have the babies that you get to pick out.
Sara: What do you mean?
James: Little babies are at the hospital and big people come by to pick out which baby they want.
Sara: So people don't just keep their own babies?
James: No. Babies are adopted.
Sara: Oh yes this is very true. Some babies are adopted. Some mommies and daddies though have the babies and then want to keep their own, like you and Charlotte.
James: (Pause to think about this for a moment to check my accuracy) Yes this makes sense. So then why are there other babies?
Sara: Well sometimes a big person has a baby and they decide that they aren't going to be able to be the best mommy or daddy for that baby. So they put it up for adoption for another big person to take care of the baby.
James: Okay. That makes sense. So the big person didn't like the baby?
Sara: No. The big person actually loved the baby so much that they realized that they needed to let someone else take care of the baby.
James: Oh. So what happens when two big people don't like each other?
Sara: (a little laugh) Well it is different for different situations. But most of the time big people are old enough to be able to take care of themselves so they can go and live somewhere else if they don't like the other big person.
James: Oh.
Sara: Okay, please eat your green beans now.
Throughout the conversation I was horrified that James was going to ask me where the babies come from...I had NO CLUE how I was going to respond to that! His mom was in the other room and she said that she had a great time listening to the flow of the conversation. Apparently Sesame Street that morning was about adoption.
This just goes to show that apparently children do listen a lot and take in everything around them. Good lesson to learn for all of us!
The next day, I taught James about football.
