Things are just normal

One of the fun things about having a child Nicholas's age is the ability to tease him. For example, whenever he asks me what we are having for dinner, I tell him we are having bugs. He never falls for this. He also never falls for the one where he asks where his Dad is and I tell him he went to the moon. I tell him all sorts of things - that I will sell him to the gypsies, that I will turn the pets into a stew, that I'm going to stay in bed all day. He doesn't believe any of it.

The other day Linda sent me an email filled with really funny photographs, and as I was scrolling through them, Nicholas ran up and started acting up - something both kids do frequently when I am sitting down and not paying attention to them. (I don't think they do it on purpose, I think they just see an opportunity and their little minds seize it.) In any case, instead of stopping what I was doing (I am REALLY working on the "not interrupting" thing) I pulled him up onto my lap as I was going through the pictures. And then we came to this one, the title of which was "Fridge Magnet":


Right away I started joking. "Look at the kitty that got stuck in the refrigerator door!" And then I took a look at Nick's face. He was staring at the photo with wide eyes and a pale face devoid of any humor whatsoever. And So I immediately changed tactics. "It's not real!" I said, smiling my biggest smile. "It's just a silly magnet that LOOKS like a kitty is stuck in the door. That's why it's funny!" And eventually he smiled and then walked away.

Honestly, I never wanted to be the kind of parent to torture small animals on front of my children. We even free spiders and bugs caught in the house rather than smush them. So I was horrified. But when you think about it... Steve watches all sorts of cartoons that involve limbs falling off, the Grim Reaper walking around, and people generally getting hurt... but smash ONE KITTEN in one door...