Recently, I found this old meme floating around on Facebook:
Without any prompting, ask your child these questions and write
down exactly what they say. It is a great way to find out what they really
think.
When the kids were in preschool I got a list of these “Questions
about Mom” each year. Their answers were precious in their
inaccuracy. And I think I interviewed my kids in the early days of
Facebook. These days I'll take any excuse to talk to my children,
so I grabbed the questions and caught my kids on a couple of lazy afternoons
to see if they know me any better now that they’re older and wiser.
I posted my interview with my twelve year old here. The following is the interview with my fourteen year old son, who I cornered in his bedroom:
1. What is something mom always says to you?
“Take
small bites.”
It’s
true. It’s like he’s going for the gold
medal in cheek-stuffing at every meal.
Squirrels and chipmunks have nothing on this kid. I pray for latent emergence of table manners every
single day.
* * *
2. What makes mom happy?
“Um,
when, um, ::cough cough:: when… when (at
this point I’m getting suspicious – am I really that hard to please?)… when we
follow your instructions, I guess. When
we do chores without you asking us to.”
True. I like having people around who know what I
like and arrange things that way. It’s
such a good way to live, really.
* * *
3. What makes mom sad?
“When
we disobey.”
Also
true. Although my reaction to disobeying
children may look more like rage to the rest of the world, in our house it’s
called “Mom is sad.”
* * *
4. How does your mom
make you laugh?
“She
doesn’t.” ::laughs nervously:: “I
don’t know. When you do funny things.”
I will accept this answer.
* * *
5. What was your mom like as a child?
“I
don’t know!”
He's tired of talking about me already. Thus begins the rapid-fire part of our
program.
* * *
6. How old is your
mom?
“42”
* * *
7. How tall is your mom?
“Five-eleven”
* * *
8. What is her favorite
thing to do?
“Read blogs”
* * *
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
“Read
blogs”
* * *
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
“Blogging”
* * *
11. What is your mom
really good at?
“Blogging”
* * *
12. What is your mom not
very good at?
“Singing.”
Ahem.
I’ll let him slide for now. I’m too old for
American Idol, anyway. But I will have
the rest of you know that I have quite a good voice. In the car.
And in my mind.
* * *
13. What does your mom do for a job?
“Blogging”
Not
so fast, mister. Canned answers will get you nowhere in this world. It was here that I
ignored the “no prompting” rule and started prompting for more info about
me. This is turning out to be a pretty
boring interview. Who knew 14-year-olds
were so surly? Harrison Ford’s got
nothing on this kid.
* * *
14. What is your mom's favorite food?
“Uhhhhmmmm,
how about fish and salad.”
Touché,
pussy cat. Not really my fave, but also
his most hated meal. He practically transforms
into a bottomless pit of despair when I serve this at dinnertime.
* * *
15. What makes you proud
of your mom?
“I
don’t know. Taking care of us.”
Serving
fish and salad, you mean.
* * *
16. If your mom were a
character, who would she be?
“A character from what?”
I
don’t care.
“Maybe
like Daisy Duck. I don’t know. It’s the only girl character I can think of
right now. From like, Looney Toons or
whatever.”
If
you’re keeping score, I’m 2 for 2 on reminding my kids of a cartoon duck. Either my kids are really into ducks or I am a duck. Whatever.
Daisy Duck is awesome.
* * *
17. What do you and your
mom do together?
“Um,
probably go shopping.”
I
guess that’s accurate. He keeps growing,
and we keep shopping.
* * *
18. How are you and your mom the same?
“We
are tall and we have freckles, and we have the same kind of personality, I
guess.”
Poor
kid. About the personality part. Being tall and having freckles obviously rocks.
* * *
19. How are you and your mom different?
“I
don’t know.”
Prompting
again: How?
“Well,
we don’t like the same things. You like
to go shopping; I don’t like to go shopping.
You like to cook; I don’t like to cook.”
But
you said we go shopping together.
“I
know but that doesn’t mean that I like it!”
Yeah. Me either.
Let’s never go shopping again.
* * *
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
“By
taking care of me…”
Anything
else?
::few moments later, in a
small voice::
“…and
saying she loves me.”
* * *
21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
“Um,
I don’t know. I’m not you! I don’t really… maybe… maybe when he helps
around the house.”
That’s it?
“Yeah.”
He’s
right. I do love a man who helps around the
house.
* * *
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
“Favorite
place to go? Mmmmhmmmmm.... probably to the outlets?”
Again with the
shopping. If they would quit growing,
imagine the time – and money – I’d save.
* * *
23. How old was your Mom when you were born?
::does math in head::
“Twenty-seven
or 28. Is that right?”
Yeah.
I was 27. A lifetime ago. I look at this person who is as big as I am
now. My mind can’t contain this fact. It vanishes as soon as it appears.
* * *
Anything else? Anything else you know about me that you’d
like to share?
“NO.” ::rolls over, pulls
covers over head::
He is SO my child.
*******
I am going to do this with my children this summer because I know they will give TERRIBLE answers noooooooo.
ReplyDeleteI do want to hear what they have to say and I love the idea of this.
Haha! I love this.
ReplyDeleteDuck.