A & M are coming over with their baby daughter, H, and their boy, B, who's Lucy's age and someone she plays comfortably with.
Me: We have visitors coming over. You need to put on some clothes. No nude-ness when we have guests.
Lu: No. Pants off is fine.
Me: No. You can wear trousers or you can wear a dress. What's it to be?
Lu: Hmm, a dress. B likes to see me in a dress.
How? What? Where? WTF? I'm not sure B can even say dress. I've never said anything like that; I don't know a woman who would. I don't know a man who'd hold a preference (or at least speak it in those terms). It sounds like bad dialogue from a soap - 'girl talk' to establish 'character'. But we don't watch that kind of thing.
I thought the enemy was at the gates but it turns out we've been infiltrated.
I am quietly freaking out and switched into remedial feminist indoctrination mode. And casting suspicious looks at everyone.
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8 comments:
Like The Day of the Triffids, it learns to sense when the electric fence has been turned off.
It sounds like something my Nan would have said. How disconcerting.
Although remedial feminist mode in moderation is not a bad response she may just have been reflecting her preference on someone else to make it more important.
Then again it may just have come out of the ether and out her mouth. My Mum was mortified the day that at about 4 I was comforting my brother who had been scared by an older gentleman who dared to speak to him by saying "Its Ok he'll die soon".
I hadn't had much contact with older people, all my grandparents were the other side of Australia, let alone any older animals or people that had died so where that came from is still a mystery to all.
Kind Regards
Belinda
Belinda - great advice to your brother. I kind of want to take that into my set of soothing responses.
In some circumstances, yes, but I guess the backstory here is that she NEVER wears dresses or skirts (and in the end didn't yesterday either).
It might have come out of the ether but it wasn't just the words, it was the tone and the phrasing, which of course I can't capture here. I think she heard it somewhere ... it's such apart of our cultural baggage, dressing to please your man, and I think she heard it and liked the sound of it, tried it on for size. I know she doesn't know the implications of it, but I think when kids have the words the meanings eventually get attached, and this is something I want to avoid.
In the end it's a mystery, like most of our kids' inner lives. But yes, as Kate says, disconcerting.
Kris
I feel it. I am currently upset because my 5 year old sons best friend has announced that he is now her boyfriend. Not the same thing at all, I know, but just as disconcerting.
I hear some very left-field things being said by my youngest at the moment too! These "pronouncements" really get me thinking about our influence as parents. It shows me, day in and day out, how much my little girl is taking in and that more and more, she is taking it in when I'm not around! :-)
Oh gosh, the battle begins. I feel like I've battled "pink everything" for years now. Where the heck do they get it from? Hideous "Bratz" comes from a friend of the small fry. Japanese anime - "Sailor Moon" and "Cardcaptors" actually came from older siblings re-visiting just gone childhood. Oh, you can see these episodes on Youtube.
We've a relatively small house, the computer is in the loungeroom. Most excellent for monitoring offspring computer usage. It's a very "public" place for computer usage.
We had plans for a small office, using space from a large bedroom. Have since used that space for linen/storage cupboards.
And realised the virtues of exposed computer usage.
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