Yesterday evening I took the family to Oktoberfest over in Addison. Last year when we went our daughter wore the dirndl her mother wore when she was 6 or 7 years old. Even at 4 she was just barely able to fit into it. She isn’t at all overweight, but just growing fast. She was so beautiful in that dress. We took a picture of her holding the teddy bear in lederhosen we bought her and it is still a favorite photo of not only us but friends and family as well. This year she rode all of the carnival rides by herself. The day we went last year was also the day we found out my wife was pregnant. What a difference a year makes.
While I was watching our son my wife took our daughter to some of the shops there. While waiting in line our daughter said the strangest thing:
Shopping makes you feel good.
This floored my wife who detests shopping, especially the modern empowerment variety. Evidently one of the girls at kindergarten has been talking about how her mother takes her shopping every day and how great it is. My wife did her best to talk her down off this dangerous psychological ledge. Wouldn’t you rather ride though mud? she asked. Our daughter processed this for a while, and ultimately agreed (who wouldn’t?). Still sensing some hesitation, my wife continued; When you go shopping, all you do is buy a bunch of things you don’t need, and then sell them in a garage sale a few months later. This sealed the deal. Our daughter decided she would go back and explain this to the girls in class. Knowing how these things work, I have a mental image of the girls going home and telling their mothers what our daughter said. I hope the fathers are present when they do. It should be good for a laugh at least.
I can’t believe how early this nonsense happens though. I’m just getting over my 3rd cold in 4 weeks, but I now realize that a virus isn’t the worst form of infection coming back to our home from kindergarten.
HA! Kindergarten? I think our older kids were in about the 4th grade before they began to utter such profundities.
When we were blessed with 2 more children after a 10-year hiatus from babies, we almost immediately began to think, “Homeschool this time.”
Crazy isn’t it? That and the antics of the teacher. She insisted that we buy several times the amount of supplies our daughter would need and insisted that we not label them with her name. She then doled out the supplies to each child and labeled them with their names. She even confiscated our daughter’s Kleenex pack when she had a cold and put it in the communal pile. Everyone has to use the same Kleenex….
My wife is already seriously considering pulling our daughter out and home schooling her. So far she really likes being with the other kids and I think the positives still outweigh the negatives. My wife has taught at several Christian private schools (middle and high school) so she’s very confident that she could do this. Our other option would be to take advantage of reduced tuition when she starts teaching again.
Hi Dalrock,
Cute description of the drindl. I sometimes feel bad about missing the dress-up experience.
I’m not sure how much of your daughter’s love of shopping is nurture as opposed to nature. Since your wife isn’t a lover of shopping, I’d go with I’ll going to go with nature. From an evo-psych perspective, shopping=gathering, so of course it feels good. That won’t necessarily turn your daughter into a recreational shopper.
I’m also a certified teacher. We intentionally decided not to homeschool because there wasn’t enough social interaction with a wide enough cross-section of kids. In fact, we moved from one school district to a better one rather than home-school. When you home school, you end up interacting with other home-schoolers. For example, there are scout troops and YMCA gym classes solely for homeschoolers.
It does make you feel good, as long as you are at a gun show.
Good point!
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Good Lord.The teacher seems to be into “redistributing wealth”!
Where oh where would she(a member of the teachers union) get such a funny idea from and who in the political /media/Hollywood nexus* would make it respectable……Its all so puzzling!
*the convergence of which is increasingly terrifying
“She insisted that we buy several times the amount of supplies our daughter would need and insisted that we not label them with her name. She then doled out the supplies to each child and labeled them with their names.”
Did you know this was coming? My response would have been to tell the teacher she didn’t need that much stuff, and that I’d be labeling it regardless. Then again, I’m the kind of person who likes to make a stink in the face of a major injustice or impropriety.
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