Playing Games

So I’ve got this kid…and it’s inconceivable to me how much he has grown in such a short time. I came across an old picture of him as a toddler a few weeks ago, and couldn’t help feeling a little sad that I would never get to play with that cute little guy again.
So I wrote a song about that, and it’s not half bad, actually. I was rather proud of it, and when my sister came to visit the other day I played it for her.

To my amazement, Stephen burst into tears when he heard it. I talked to him, and made sure he understood that just because he was a wonderful baby, it doesn’t mean that he’s not a wonderful big kid too. He said tearfully,
“Mom, I wish I could remember when I was your baby! I don’t even remember that time you told about in the song when we pretended the box was a rocket ship, and it must have been so nice.”

I couldn’t help laughing a bit as I told him, “Stephen, as a matter of fact, that never really happened.”
“What?”
“Well, I needed something to rhyme with ‘balloon’ , and ‘flying away to the moon’ fit nicely.”
“You mean you made that up? It’s not even true?!”
“Honey, it’s a song. That’s like, well, a story with a tune. Of course I made it up. I made up the part about Grandma, too.”

He could scarcely believe it. His favorite, most sad part of the song, and it was just a lie. He doesn’t understand the concept of “fiction” yet, I guess. Since then, he doesn’t seem sad when he hears me sing it, so that’s good.
Still, I wonder if he somehow thinks less of me now, that I never played Rocket-To-The Moon with him in an old TV box.
It’s strange the things that we do, and don’t do, that have an effect on our children we never anticipated.

Tracy Feb 6th 1996 07:26 pm So I've got this kid... No Comments yet Comments RSS

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