Tonight I overheard my 11-year-old son asking "Dad, what is 'menstrual'?" I strained my ears to hear his response, and, wisely, my husband responded with "Where did you hear that? Use it in a sentence for me."
My son proceeded to tell my husband about a medieval movie he had seen involving singers, or minstrels. My husband could then correctly explain what a minstrel was.
It reminded me of a time when I was about 11, and came home from church asking my Mom what a pervert was. She cautiously gave me her take on the term while I looked utterly confused. When she had finished I told her she must be wrong. She insisted that she was fairly sure she knew what she was talking about. I then told her about a song we had been learning about kneeling in 'fervent' prayer, and I couldn't imagine how perverts played into this particular story. She had a good internal laugh and straightened me out.
It never hurts to ask.
2 comments:
That reminds me of Lydia Davis. She was helping the primary kids make mother's day cards when one little boy asked her how to spell "penis." She immediately went into a long discussion about how some things are appropriate at certain times and it probably wasn't appropriate for a mother's day card. The boy said he was fine with that but he still needed to know how to spell "penis." So then came the big lecture on privacy and certain things you only talk about in private and this wasn't one of those situations. After all of this, the little boy became increasingly confused and frustrated. Finnaly Lydia asked what the boy was writing in the card. The boy said, "well, I want to thank my mom for all the happiness she brings me, and I know how to spell 'hap' but I don't know how to spell 'penis!'"
I always remember the pervert conversation re-lived and will never make that mistake with my kids. I question everything they say before I give ANY explaination.
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