Jeremy (3 1/2 year old) wants to know who made mean people. Short, preschool-tailored summary of the Nature-Nurture interplay quickly spilled out of my lips while my brain was thinking-"heck if I know. I used to think mean parents made mean people, but now that I'm a parent, I'm a little slower to point fingers. Perhaps mean kids make mean parents (JK!)". Lecture ended with- "and that's why when you spit at your brother you have to go to time out, so you won't turn out to be a mean person when you grow up. OK?" One point for me! 6 years of clinical psyc loans are finally paying off!
Satisfied with the explanation (but eager to move away from any reference to time out) Jeremy then wanted to know who invented dough, whether all coins he finds are his, and if it's really true that chocolate cows make chocolate milk-he's pretty sure that's a mommy joke, but is just checking... Short preschool-tailored summary of the scientific method followed (trial and error, invention out of necessity, how we discard ideas (and recipes) that don't work, don't taste good, etc. (or kill people, says Nathan (5), like if you make chicken pot pie with poisonous mushrooms). Exactly, we do not make pies that kill people again, says mommy. One point for the boys! (now they claim the "yucky" pot pie in front of them might have poisonous mushrooms. But candy is safe right?).
Good night all. I hear Nathan doing his ghoulish mid-night screaming (not sure if it's an eyelash in his eye or cramped leg muscles after swimming or a nightmare). Gotta go. But first, an answer: children who interfere with their parents' sleep or creative expression may not actually make mean people out of cheesecloth, but they can certainly push a perfectly nice mommy into grumpyness...
