Comments on: Capitalism is alive and well amongst the four year old set

By: Ella

Ella — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:55:05 +0000

Not valium (yet) but a large glass of wine at the end of each day certainly wouldn’t go amiss.

By: emma

emma — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:39:47 +0000

I would leave the discussions of class oppression etc. to a later age. Don’t you have enough to deal with just to get through the day without resorting to Valium? I know I do and I only have two!!

By: ella

ella — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 20:42:19 +0000

Thank you. Flattered by ‘like the new look’ – ‘your new look is interesting’ might have been more accurate so thanks for being kind about my dubious programming skills.

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:59:22 +0000

Found you. Like the new look. Will change my blogroll.

Jen

By: ella

ella — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:59:50 +0000

Madeleine – that’s the sort of explanation I give. But then I also say ‘work hard in school, do your best and you’ll do well in life’ to which Harry often replies ‘yes, I’m going to be very successful. I’m going to make LOTS of money’. Money = success = respect, even at his age. He’s getting these subliminal messages from everything he sees and hears. [But then he also says he reaaally wants to be a train driver on Thomas the Tank Engine, so perhaps I'm reading way too much into his comments.]

By: ella

ella — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:38:45 +0000

“Because I say so” is well-used in our house too. So much so that I hear Eldest Son saying “I’m not going to bed/getting dressed/going to school. Because I SAY SO.”

By: Madeleine

Madeleine — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:27:07 +0000

Oh, they start young, don’t they. When my daughter comes out with something like that, I preach a little about how all jobs are important because the planes couldn’t fly safely without the people on the runway directing them or repairing them or whatever. But in my heart I wonder how long till she figures out which jobs make money and take education (and are respected), and which ones don’t.

Or which jobs take education but don’t make money — when she was 5 she announced one evening that she was going to be a poem writer when she grew up. But that to make money she would go around to schools teaching children art. How does a 5 year old know that poets don’t make much money? And what makes her think art teachers can support themselves? The mysteries of the world are endless. At least she thinks teaching is valuable.

By: Teri

Teri — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:43:07 +0000

I like the simple explanation as well.

And, as for the “whys,” I find “because I’m your mommy and I say so” to be quite effective when I’m too tired to explain sometihng properly.

By: ella

ella — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 12:41:10 +0000

I like the idea of the simple explanation. I imagine this will work particularly well to questions I don’t know the answers to (I’m looking forward to those…).

Wondering why your husband’s car was rolling down a hill…

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:39:24 +0000

Mwahahaha. It’s so difficult to stay one step ahead of this stuff. Not to mention, it’s also impossible to make sense some days. My husband launched into a complicated explanation of gravity when my son wanted to know why his car rolled down a hill. He asked again, and I told him “the car wanted to go down the hill, honey.” He accepted that with no problems.

Maybe rather than smashing world views, you can find a “simple” explanation. Like, you can’t judge a man by his shoes. Heh.