“Dad, is it the end of the world?”
“Why?” I replied, “Did your mom just find out you didn’t clean your room like she asked?”
“Seriously, dad. You know, the Mayan’s prediction and what’s going on in the Middle East.”
I thought for a second and realized we were headed into serious territory. I remember me being terrified of nuclear war and killer bees as a child. Then I thought about the end-times documentary I watched on Netflix. And I thought about the news coming out of the Middle East these days. I answered as honestly as I could, “I honestly don’t know, buddy. The news is scary. But that’s really nothing new. Think how scary it was when your grandparents were your age. They had World War II. But we can’t be scared about something we have no control over. We just have to live our lives to the fullest every single day we are given.”
My son looked at me and said, “My friends don’t believe you are a cancer survivor.”
I was a little humored that it had come up in discussion on the playground, but then said, “I can come to show-and-tell and take off my shirt if that would help.”
“Nah, that’s OK. You know how pirates pooped on a pirate ship?”
“Hopefully not in their pants.”
We laughed and then he explained how pirates went to the bathroom on a pirate ship.
too precious! I laughed out loud. Thank you.
I love how the minds of children work. “Now that we’ve covered the end of the world, let’s move on to something else…..”