Write Back Weekend: "The Wonder Years"
Have y'all been over to say hi to Stumbling Through Life With Grace Yet? Some of her stuff is already in boxes so go visit soon, before she moves out!
As you have all proven to be true, kids do and say funny things all the time. I, of course, was no exception.
Part of MCF's comment hit home for me. In case you didn't read it, he said, "...Hazard of being an only child--everything is considered cute at that age and parents don't let you forget it..." The rest of his post had to do with how bad he was as a kid. I was an angel, so I couldn't relate to that.
As an only child, you are watched with much closer scrutiny than you might be if you had a brother or sister thrown into the mix. All of your firsts are adorable, as our your seconds, thirds and so on. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if my parents were still counting, only now they just count silently to themselves.
I am sure there are tons of things I did that fell under the category of "one day we will look back on this and laugh". For example, there was the time I stole a pack of gum from the grocery store while we were on vacation. I had to be about 3 or 4. The gum was right out there, eye level, for the taking. How was I to know you have to buy it first? It wasn't until my parents saw me sharing gum with a new friend I made at the hotel pool that they knew I had it. I told them my friend had asked me for gum and I didn't have any, so I went and got some. Made perfect sense to me.
Then there was the time I could have sworn my mother was African American. My mom is Italian and let's just say if she works at it, she can get very tan in the sun. I got my dad's coloring so I'm fair and have to work much harder to get any sort of tan so I usually solve that problem by not working at it all. But as a little child, I knew nothing of labels like "african american" and "caucasian". To me people were either chocolate... or vanilla. Imagine my confusion when I thought my usually vanilla mom had become chocolate all of a sudden. Somebody was double dipping.
As a child I also remember clearly believing raisins became bugs or that bugs became raisins. I used to think if you left either alone for too long they would simply turn into the other. I think this came from being traumatized by trying to pick up too many things that looked like raisins but were actually bugs as a child. Either that or you can just chalk it up to overimagination which has never gone away.
Or how about the time I drew on the walls? I don't remember what I drew, but I only did it because of the commercial for the fabulous cleaning product, 409. You know, child see, child do. As my parents scrubbed the walls, I sat there in the background singing, "Shine on! Shine on 409!"
But the number one classic mini-Janet story of all time has to be the time I was in preschool and we were learning about the seasons. The teachers asked, "Does anybody here know what the seasons are?" I raised my hand, proudly and said, "Yes, I do. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons."
Between the 409 and Frankie Valli, one thing is certain, I was pop culture obsessed, even way back then.
As you have all proven to be true, kids do and say funny things all the time. I, of course, was no exception.
Part of MCF's comment hit home for me. In case you didn't read it, he said, "...Hazard of being an only child--everything is considered cute at that age and parents don't let you forget it..." The rest of his post had to do with how bad he was as a kid. I was an angel, so I couldn't relate to that.
As an only child, you are watched with much closer scrutiny than you might be if you had a brother or sister thrown into the mix. All of your firsts are adorable, as our your seconds, thirds and so on. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if my parents were still counting, only now they just count silently to themselves.
I am sure there are tons of things I did that fell under the category of "one day we will look back on this and laugh". For example, there was the time I stole a pack of gum from the grocery store while we were on vacation. I had to be about 3 or 4. The gum was right out there, eye level, for the taking. How was I to know you have to buy it first? It wasn't until my parents saw me sharing gum with a new friend I made at the hotel pool that they knew I had it. I told them my friend had asked me for gum and I didn't have any, so I went and got some. Made perfect sense to me.
Then there was the time I could have sworn my mother was African American. My mom is Italian and let's just say if she works at it, she can get very tan in the sun. I got my dad's coloring so I'm fair and have to work much harder to get any sort of tan so I usually solve that problem by not working at it all. But as a little child, I knew nothing of labels like "african american" and "caucasian". To me people were either chocolate... or vanilla. Imagine my confusion when I thought my usually vanilla mom had become chocolate all of a sudden. Somebody was double dipping.
As a child I also remember clearly believing raisins became bugs or that bugs became raisins. I used to think if you left either alone for too long they would simply turn into the other. I think this came from being traumatized by trying to pick up too many things that looked like raisins but were actually bugs as a child. Either that or you can just chalk it up to overimagination which has never gone away.
Or how about the time I drew on the walls? I don't remember what I drew, but I only did it because of the commercial for the fabulous cleaning product, 409. You know, child see, child do. As my parents scrubbed the walls, I sat there in the background singing, "Shine on! Shine on 409!"
But the number one classic mini-Janet story of all time has to be the time I was in preschool and we were learning about the seasons. The teachers asked, "Does anybody here know what the seasons are?" I raised my hand, proudly and said, "Yes, I do. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons."
Between the 409 and Frankie Valli, one thing is certain, I was pop culture obsessed, even way back then.
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