Nation building

This morning Boy presented maps he'd drawn of two countries he's planning to make.

OK.

"And now, I have to write some numbers so you know how many babies you need to have to live in these countries."

OK.

"Don't worry, they're not that big. You won't have to have like 10,000* or anything like that."

Great.

"So, the plan is that they'll grow up here in Australia and then when we have the right number of adults, they'll go to their countries."

He has to buy a flotilla of boats to get them all there, and teach them all their new languages. He's going to be really good at this, however, since he's the one making it up in the first place.

Sounds like I may be busy...


*Final tallies: 76 and 60 each.

He said, she said

Picture an open-plan kitchen/dining area. A mother sits at the table, turning to drink. A boy and girl run around, sometimes playing, mostly bickering.
Imagine the girl suddenly pulls up short and, hands pressed to the side of her head, she lets out a piercing shriek.
"Nobody understands me! But, only the triangles do."

Another scene: a mother is driving, two children in the back. A boy is screaming and crying. A girl is yelling at him to be quiet: "You're hurting my ears!"
The mother agrees to buy popadums, but only if the boy stops screaming.
"There's no way I can take you to the shops like this."
And, suddenly, the boy falls quiet and his tears stop.
"OK."
The mother congratulates the boy on his emotional regulation (wondering all the while why he couldn't have just done that 10 minutes earlier).
"Yes, mummy, I just figured it out. If I stop making noise and then wipe my tears away, I feel better."
"No you don't, because everyone has to be sad."
The mother tries to ignore the ensuing argument about whether or not the boy is happy.

Now: the mother elsewhere, two children are watching television.
"I like Peter Rabbit, because it teaches you what to do if you have enemies."

You make scarecrows out of their clothes.

Life's lessons learnt

Nobody likes it, but it's an important life lesson. And, yanno, if you try sometimes, you might just get what you need.

Girl was raging about an injustice, as she's wont to do and has done since she figured out how to scream.

I told her I understood that she was angry, but no she couldn't have juice because, despite her protestations to the contrary, we really and truly didn't have any. Because, you see, we can't always get what we want.

Boy: Yes, I know that. It's like when I want the house to take off but I don't have my jet packs.

Yes. Exactly this.