The Dark Ages Redefined (or Kids Say the Darndest Things)
It’s so funny to see things from your kids’ perspectives, especially when it involves the concept of time. Here’s a conversation that played out in my house, just this morning.
Boy #3: “Mom, was Grandma alive in the ’80s?”
At first I thought he was talking about the 1880s. Then I realized he was, instead, referring to the 1980s. You know. Back in the “old days.” Before the Internet, cell phones and Pokemon. Might as well be the Dark Ages to them.
Me: “Yeah, Grandma was alive then. I was alive in the ’80s too.”
Boy #3: “What?! Hey, Boy #2! Guess WHAT?! MOM was alive in the ’80s!”
Boy #2: “You were?”
Me: “Sure.”
Boy #3: “What did you play with back then?”
Me: (Suppressing the urge to answer “Rocks and dinosaur eggs”) “Um, Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Barbies.”
Boy #3: (Eyes alit with wonder and amazement) “What?! Oh my gosh!”
Me: (Ready to really blow their minds) “I was actually alive in the ’70s too.”
Boy #2: “You were? What, like 1978, right?”
Me: “I was born in 1972.”
Boy #2: “Whoa.”
I don’t blame him for the “whoa.” That’s pretty heavy stuff. Especially when you’re 6 and 8.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go discover fire.
You need to totally mess with them and show them a CASSETTE TAPE. Madness!!!!
It seems that every year some student would always ask how old I was. I liked to give them the year I was born….let them do the math….and then watch for the amazement and total surprise…sometimes 10 or 15 minutes later. One year one student said, “Don’t worry Mrs. P., my grandpa’s almost as old as you are!”
Yes, out of the mouths of babes…or, in this case, fourth graders. 🙂
I am constantly suprised when kids I coach say they were born in the ’90s! My dad, at one of our performances, brought up the fact that I was on dance team all 4 years before some of them were born, to which I replied in shock, “NO! That can’t be!” So imagine my horror when I called one of the girls over and asked when she was born, and it was TRUE!!!!! ACK!!
Or an 8-track. Although I’m pretty sure I got rid of all those. What was I THINKING?!
Too funny! I am active duty military and this summer just had my first guy check in that was born after I joined the service. What an eye opener that was.
My middle daughter, who at the time was five, asked who the first people alive were. I told her, probably Adam and Eve. She asked who was next. I told her Adam and Eve’s children. She then said, “Oh, and then probably Grandma B!”