Just Say No

K-squared have this habit about asking what everything means. I love it - I truly do - because they're inquisitive and they really absorb the answers. But sometimes its hard to answer every question. They have to know the meaning behind everything, and sometimes the answers are so complex (or even obsure to us adults) that I'm not always sure how to answer.

But I am a big proponent of the truth, and I have a habit of talking to my kids sometimes like they are peers. So, they know that most songs on the radio deal with unrequited love, or a man leaving a woman or a woman leaving a man. They're wise to the fact that there aren't always happy endings, and sometimes people make mistakes they can't take back. They know that Dr. Phil helps those who can't help themselves, and that if Oprah says it, it must be gospel truth. And then there's the commercials... Well, the best way to share that is with the following story:

There's a commercial that plays sometimes in which a girl is talking to her dog and the dog is telling her that he misses the way she used to be and doesn't like the new her, all strung out on pot. K2 saw this one day a couple of months ago, and asked me why the girl was talking to her dog. Distracted by something else no doubt, I gave her the brief rundown on the meaning of the commercial. Fast forward a couple of months to today, when the same commercial aired. K1 saw it this time and asked what it meant. Before I could answer K2 jumped in with "She's having a loose-nation. She thinks her dog is talking to her cuz she's whacked out on drugs." Well, there you go. She had it right, and K1 was happy with her explanation. Though he did ask me what a loose-nation was and I had to remind both him and K2 what hallucination meant and why we only put good things in our bodies.

Everything is a teaching moment.