09 December, 2013

Recent conversations with boys

I've lamented here before that I struggle to get decent conversations going with our boys at meal times. However, we've had some interesting ones recently (not all at meal times, though):

Boy asks: "What did Nanna do as a job?" led to interesting conversation about her jobs.
Our family. Five individuals who struggle daily to love one
another in our conversations.

Boy asks: "Why do pimples happen? What makes them red and raised up?" Led to discussions on puberty as well as a fumbling explanation about the science behind pimples.

We've had some great conversations about what they think might happen next in the historical fiction book I'm reading to them. Many of their ideas are fantasy, though!

As I tried to explore why our teenager rejected a dinner I made, I got a backhanded complement when he said something like, "Our meals are usually so good, that I just didn't expect something that bad." It turns out that he'd not done so well in training that afternoon and wasn't emotionally prepared for a "different" meal. It might have helped if I'd given him prior warning to the unusual meal (it had vegetables we don't usually eat cooked differently and much more garlic than we usually eat).

At the bathroom sink before breakfast I was doing my hair:
"What's that?" one boys asks.
"Mousse"
"Ewwww"
As he ran down the stairs away from me, "Aaaaah, Look out! Moose is coming!"

Over the weekend we've had a lot of wrestling conversations, especially rehashing what happened in various bouts on Saturday morning. I love those conversations. We all learn from our son/brother and usually they are pretty "sensible" conversations that stay away from silliness and toilet humour, although I have to admit we have a couple of nice "farting while training" stories that always get a giggle.

Here's a conversation that ran away from me and nearly ended in disaster. We'd just talked about someone who was getting married soon in her early 20s.
"Getting married, at 22?" one shocked boy said.
"Yeah, people get married as young as that. Nanna got married at 21, and Mr and Mrs Smith* got married before they turned 20."
"Oh" Slight pause as he did a huge leap of logic. "I guess that's why Mrs Smith doesn't have much of a bump here (gesturing at his chest)."
Stifling a giggle, I tried to explain that all of those types of physical attributes tend to be developed before you turn 20. No idea if he "got it", though.

* Obviously I changed their names for privacy!

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