>Being a mind reader is an important skill to have as a mother. When you see a baby take off at lightning speed, it’s good to be able to anticipate where they might be headed. I presume that with teenagers a little mind reading might help out too.
With five year olds, being a mind reader can often be annoying. For example, when I hear, “I’m hungry.” I know that means, “Mommy, may I please have a snack? I think I’d like a banana and a glass of milk.” But since that isn’t what was said, I have to find unique and creative ways of saying, “Please rephrase that in the form of a polite question.” I am torn on that one because as a hostess, I think I should always be anticipating peoples’ hungers and thirsts. But as a mother, I require polite requests. And I know, “Mommy, what can I do?” means, “Mommy, I want to play wii, but I know you are going to say no, so I am just going pretend I can’t think of anything else to do until you come up with the idea yourself out of desperation.” Probably the best/worst one is, “My ears are popped.” Everyone knows that one, right? No? Well, at least two or two and half years ago we were either in a plane or driving into the mountains and Luke said, “Wah, wah, wah, my ears hurt!” And we said, “Your ears must be popped. Would you like a piece of gum, that might help.” And ever since, Luke has always said, “My ears are popped” when he wants gum. Once we bought gum at a gas station. The next ten times we pulled into a gas station he immediately said, “My ears are popped.” What is so hard about, “May I please have a piece of gum?”
Other times when he may ask a question in a round-about way, or casually make a reference to some offhand comment that someone made, I appreciate my mind reading skills because I can tell he has a concern, a fear, or needs some reassurance. But probably my favorite mind reading incident has to do with what I like to call La Sagrada de Will Vill.
There was a very brief, maybe two day phase between pirates and star wars obsessions and that obsession was with knights. As I savored the break from shivering me timbers, I shared our photo album from our pre-kid trip to Spain and showed Luke all the pictures, specifically the knights and castles in Toledo. But I guess the whole album made an impression. Because several months later, when we drove by the Williams Village dorms at CU, Luke said ,
“Hey, that’s that building!”
And I said, “No, that is Williams Village. The building you are thinking of is in Spain.”
And Luke said, “Haven’t you and Daddy walked on that bridge from one building to another?”
And I said, “You are thinking of La Sagrada Familia. And we did walk from one building to another, but that was in Spain. Different building.”
And he said, “Oh.”
You can see how he’d be confused, and how I would know exactly what he was talking about.
Photo from wikipedia.
MetaMegan 