January Blues

There is a day mid January that is officially the most depressing of the year. Certainly the weather early last week, cold with a flurry of snow that quickly turned into sleet and rain, didn’t inspire much joy.

Even less comforting was my 8 year old cheerfully working out how much longer we all had to live.

“Mummy, you have about 39 years left to live, Granny, you have about 13 years left, how old is Grandpa?...... maybe 7 years.”

I did explain to her that there were no guarantees of anything as far as life expectancy was concerned, but that did not stop her busily doing her sums and making her predictions.

Patrick, age 6, was also behaving rather oddly, apparently in an effort to prove how strong he was.

“What are you doing Patrick”, I asked “Why are you hitting yourself?”

“I am practising” he answered.

“Practising? Punching yourself in the face?”

“Yes, so that I can sit in the front seat of the car – with the airbag”

“Oh!” I said, realisation dawning, “well, that really isn’t going to help.”

I had recently told him my reasoning for not letting him travel in the front seat of the car. I explained that if the airbag went off, he is so light, he would hit it while it was inflating, instead of while deflating as designed, and it would be like getting a massive punch in the face.

The logic of children completely defeats me sometimes.

My mother once told me why, in phrasing instructions, it is important to tell children what TO do rather than what NOT TO. Apparently children just do not hear the ‘don’t’ bit. You say ‘don’t spill the drink on the carpet,’ their subconscious mind hears ‘spill the drink on the carpet’ and over it goes.

This theory was proved again recently when I let my 3 year old play in the driver’s seat of the car when I went to fetch something. I’d left the car door open and my parting remark was “Just don’t fall out the car!”

Literally as I turned my back, she tumbled backwards off the seat and out of the car. Why? Why did I have to say it?

At least the snow has given everyone something to smile about. Even for the adults, it is very difficult to feel grumpy, at least for that moment when you are whizzing down a hillside on a sledge.

The snow excitement is fleeting apparently. I took the sledges up to school again today, thinking the children would like to do some more sledging in the field nearby before we went home. The response was unenthusiastic. 
Ben said "Oh Mum! Do we have to? I've got homework to do." 

What kind of kids am I raising, where homework is preferable to sledging?