I said I’d talk about work on Wednesdays but I missed Monday
and I really want to talk about Leo, so here goes. No work today –just plain parenthood!
Léo is 4 and a half years old and our conversations have
been quite interesting lately. He’s into 2 big topics: love and death.
He listens very intently to songs on the radio and asks
questions about lyrics –and these songs are often about breakups. So he asks “why
do people not love each other sometimes? Will you always love me, mama?” That,
the fact that sometimes people don’t love each other anymore boggles his mind. He
just doesn’t get it, so we spend time talking about that –about divorce (I don’t
name it but I explain that mommies and daddies live in separate houses) and
breakups. I can tell he’s pausing to reflect on what we discuss. The he moves
on to other topics –Avengers usually- and asks more questions another day after
listening to yet another song about lost love.
The other big topic he’s into is death. He started asking
about death a couple of months ago. I had read an excellent post on Cup of Jo
about the way she talked to her children about death so I mirrored what she
said. I explained in very simple terms that people stop breathing, stop
walking, stop doing what people usually do. At first he cried and said he didn’t
want to die, and he didn’t want us to die. But we said that everyone dies and
it’s ok –but of course we said that he wouldn’t die for a long while. We got
this book, which explains the cycle of life really well and simply. And because
he has toys with batteries, I explained that the heart is like a battery that dies
at one point –which he understood. He doesn’t really asks questions now –though
the order of people’s death is still something he inquires about: “so will I
die before Jude?” Now he says: “I’ll be sad when you die.” Once I told him I’d
be sad, too, when he dies and he said “No mama, you’ll already be died.” Silly
me, of course I will.
I like talking to him about these big topics. It makes me
feel that I am here for him and available for whatever question he has, however
uncomfortable the topics are.
What about you. Do you have children and what are their main
big topics of conversations right now?
No comments:
Post a Comment