One of my neighbors babysits a little girl named Shelby. Shelby came over today as I was brushing Roland to talk about pets and to pet the pup. After we exhausted all possible pet conversation that a 5 year-old (I'm guessing, I don't know her actual age) and a 31-year-old can have — including her observation to me that, "Sometimes cats and dogs make out" (How does a 5-year-old know about making out?), she said to me: "Do you have any kids?"
"No. Just a dog and a cat."
"That's all?! Do you have a husband?"
"No."
"Not even a boyfriend?!" She said this with such shock, it caught me off guard. This 5 year-old couldn't understand a world in which a person didn't have a boyfriend. The idea was so foreign to her. Meanwhile when I was 5, I didn't know what a boyfriend was.
So I said, "Yes. I have a boyfriend."
"Oh," she said relieved. "Which one is his car?" she immediately asked, looking out over the parking lot.
"He doesn't live here," I said.
"He doesn't?!" Again, shock from her. Like, how can you have a boyfriend if he doesn't live with you, is what she was really saying to me.
"He's at work right now," I say.
Suddenly I realize I'm justifying my life to a 5 year-old girl who has previously told me that when she grows up what she wants to be is a "superstar." (It was so matter of fact, too. I said, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Expecting nurse, teacher, hair stylists, lawyer...any of these things. Instead, without hesitating, she said, "Superstar." The most normal answer in the world.)
That's when I decided I should take my decidedly un-superstar self back inside. I may be a single, 31 year old newspaper editor, but at least I have all my teeth.
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2 comments:
You know, this would make a good column. This child's worldliness is disconcerting. Or am I just getting old?
hmmm...kids. my sister is pregnant with her first child right now. i've promised to be there for the two weeks before and after the baby is born for moral (read: kitchen) support.
i have these memories of myself as a child. i can remember what i was thinking, especially when i look at certain photos. though, trying to associate any other child with what i know i could conceive of is difficult. i think: how could they know that? aren't they supposed to be thinking of rainbows and butterflies and stuff like that?
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