Maggie: Mommy, is Big Bird a person with feathers?Me: Well...sort of. Why?
Maggie: Well, what is Big Bird?
Me: Well...Big Bird is sort of a puppet. There's someone inside of a big costume.
Maggie: (silence)
Maggie: Mommy? How about Zoey? Is she a person or a puppet?
Me: Sweetie, Zoey is a puppet.
Maggie: No, she's a person and so you are wrong.
Me: No, Mag. Zoey and Oscar and Grover and Cookie Monster are all puppets. There are people who use their imaginations to make Big Bird and Zoey and Elmo and all the other characters seem alive, but they're not really.
Maggie: You have made this my saddest day ever.
And then the tears flowed.
In retrospect, I guess there were some aspects of this conversation that I could have handled better. The problem is that she told me I am wrong, which seems to be the theme of this -- and let's face it every -- week.
I'm here all week at Awesome Parenting Skills Central, folks. Make sure to tip your waiters.
4 comments:
Love your blog! Funny story. You handled the whole thing better than most of my conversations with my boys :-)
well, it's really hard to explain Big Bird without using the words "grotesque," "abomination" and "ill-conceived." I think you did just fine, all things considered! Do you know Christine Lavin's song "Katie?" You might appreciate it right now.
It's too bad our Jim Henson exhibit is gone...you could have shown her some of the real puppets and how they worked. You handled it well.
You mean big bird isn't a real bird!! WTF, I better go have a conversation with my mom, she has been lying to me for almost 40 years! Please don't mention Santa or the Easter Bunny...
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