I’m not sure how it happens, but the other day I found myself in another rather (how can I put this nicely?) interesting conversation with my son.
I’m not sure how we fall into these, but these talks always seem to be lurking around the corner, just looking for a chance to jump into our very normal, everyday conversations.
“It’s about time to start getting ready for bed,” I said.
“Awwwww. Can’t we stay up a little longer,” my son pleaded.
Would you sleep better if THIS KID was in charge?
It’s a common ploy, but I was ready for it with a boring, but stock response. “Nope. Let’s go.”
“Why do we have to go to bed right now?”
“Because I said.” Another stock response on my part. But this time my son was ready.
“It wouldn’t be like this if kids were in charge,” he said.
“How do you mean,” I asked, a bit intrigued but scared to show it.
“If kids were in charge, the parents would have to go to bed early, and the kids would stay up until 2 every morning.”
“I thought that’s how it already was,” I quipped. I started to go with “You have to wait until you get to college for that” but I was afraid it would motivate him to skip some grades.
My son was not to be deterred. “The world would be a lot different if kids were in charge.”
Well, I think that’s a given.
If he was our national bird, Sonny wouldn’t be quite as majestic as an eagle, but he WOULD provide a tasty breakfast.
Then I started to think about all of the possible changes that we would see.
- The national bird would be changed from an eagle to Sonny the cuckoo bird from the Cocoa Puffs commercials.
- Playing video games wouldn’t just be a past time, it would be mandatory.
- Lunch room cafeterias across the country would be admonished for not providing enough sugar.
- Parents would be in charge of doing all the drudgery while kids had most of the fun (Oh wait . . . )
- The nutritional food pyramid would be topped with whipped cream and a cherry.
- EVERY day would be a Saturday
Hey, you know, this kids in charge doesn’t sound half bad. I might not mind giving it a try.
“And, dad,” my son added, “if kids were in charge, we’d get rid of a lot of the bad stuff. There wouldn’t be smoking. And we wouldn’t have beer and alcohol any more.”
On second thought, we’d better scrap this idea.
Holding together the jello 