I quickly stopped by the library the other day while Erick was watching the kids. I decided to pick a couple of books for each kid and made my way home. I put the books on the kitchen table and resumed with the normal things of the day; cleaning, picking up, putting away, rocking baby, changing diapers, etc. Cora and Cash were both napping and I came back into the kitchen and Bryant was reading one of the books I had borrowed for him, A Dog Like Jack ; which to the naked eye appeared to be a cute story about a boy and his dog.
Well, then, Bryant looked up at me and said "This is where they buried Jack, Mom." And pointed to a picture of a very sad family standing around a freshly covered dog grave. I almost yelled "What!" This was not what I expected.
I said "What on earth is this book about" wondering what on earth happens to this dog...does he get run over? How sad is it? Why is this book in a library where a FIVE year old can get it, or a five year old's mom can get it? Bryant calmly looked up at me and said "the dog just got old and died Mom, and this is where they buried him."
"Oh." I said.
I then proceeded to continue my previous tasks and thought Bryant sure was handling death pretty well. A few minutes later Bryant asked me if I would read the book to him. So I did. It was pretty sweet and pretty sad, and obviously meant to help children recover from the loss of a pet. As soon as I finished reading Bryant the book, he looked up at me a little teary and said "Mom, I'm going to miss you when you die."
This obviously is shocking to hear. I said kind of loud "I'm not going to die! At least any time soon!"
To which he replied "but you're 27!"
I then explained to him that grandpa is 56 and his mommy (Nana) is still alive and that I was going to live until he was well into his 50's and maybe even 60's (this is one of the reasons I had kids early!). He was comforted and said, "Mom, when I'm a daddy, can you come visit me all the time?" I laughed a little to myself, because who knows if he'll want me around in 20 years, but for now I said "of course I'll visit you all the time!" And I gave him a huge kiss! And he gave me a big hug. What a nice moment we had.
2 comments:
That is adorable. And a little disturbing. What would you say if I wrote a story about a little boy dealing with the loss of a limb? Then you would have been one upset Mommy!
Just let his future wife know the MIL will be over all the time. That will scare away all the unworthy ones.
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