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Center of the Universe

25 October 2010

Setting: Breakfast table. Early, early morning.

Peanut: I don’t want rice milk on my cereal.
Mom: okay.
she busies herself getting everyone’s breakfast ready. Sliced kiwi and dry cereal for Peanut, pumpkin and plums for baby, coconut granola for herself. Begins to pour rice milk on her own cereal…
P: [screaming] I said I don’t want milk on mine!
M: P, this isn’t yours. Yours is just the way you wanted it. This is my breakfast.
P: Oh. I thought you were ruining my cereal.
M: Not everything is about you. [wondering when she started reciting the Mother Soundtrack] You know, the Earth revolves around the Sun, not around you.
P: Um, no. The Earth revolves around the World. You can ask me next time. I know everything.

So this is parenting a teenager? One part wanting to tape it shut, one part stifling your laughter at how painfully clueless they are?

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18 Comments leave one →
  1. Fie Upon This Quiet Life permalink
    25 October 2010 8:02 pm

    Admirable restraint, once again. That screaming would have been an instant timeout in my fiefdom. I can’t take screaming first thing in the morning. Not without two or three cups of coffee and the promise of daycare.

  2. 25 October 2010 8:12 pm

    Morning screaming and painful cluelessness. Umm, don’t teenagers like to sleep in?

  3. 25 October 2010 8:19 pm

    @Fie the shrieking out of proportion to the situation kills me. He still hasn’t learned that you can state your case calmly and win almost every time in our family.
    @Macondo, you’re right. The cluelessness and shrieking will be later in the day with a teenager. Sounds like a good deal since he’ll be screaming about more than cereal, and will be considerably more surly as a general rule

  4. 26 October 2010 1:16 am

    I sooo want to sic P on my boss.

  5. 26 October 2010 2:53 am

    I can’t help but to think of “Bullets over Broadway” where Dianne Wiest is shushing John Cusack. As a general rule, I try to discourage any discourse between children and adults in my home. Makes for a happier atmosphere all around.

  6. 26 October 2010 4:01 am

    Peanut is really working you, girl. I would whip out a book on the planets and have him try to explain how his theory works. That should make for interesting blog fodder, if you should ever run out. I am thinking there is no chance of that, as long as Peanut is around ;)!

  7. 26 October 2010 6:17 am

    I think I’ve actually had a very similar conversation with my three year old. They apparently know everything too.

  8. 26 October 2010 7:42 am

    That is simply fantastic.

  9. 26 October 2010 8:10 am

    Teen life………..
    Such a difficult time, for many reasons.

    Not knowing if they want to be hugged or stand on their own.
    Next thing you know it they are graduating and dont need you anymore.
    or
    Do they?

    New here

  10. 26 October 2010 9:51 am

    I gotta say, Peanut sounds like a great kid!

  11. 26 October 2010 10:18 am

    Tee hee! I need to borrow P for a day, too, to tell some people some stuff.

  12. 26 October 2010 1:12 pm

    What if the church catches wind of this? The consequences could be dire…

  13. 26 October 2010 5:54 pm

    My goodness! I’m hear to say, it never, ever ends! The best thing to do is what you already do — enjoy it for what it is, document it (because it will bring giggles and more giggles later on down the road) and laugh now. Because really? What else is there to do?

  14. 26 October 2010 6:05 pm

    Oh my! He would fit in so very well at my house! Right down to the Earth around the World logic – only my 6 year old would tell him how it really is and then there would be yelling and fighting. Yep, he’d fit in just fine.

  15. 27 October 2010 12:26 am

    Oh dear, you make me shudder in fear of what lies ahead because I already want to tape it shut while smothering my laughter and he’s only 2! God help me!

  16. 29 October 2010 9:59 pm

    Oh, Peanut, how incredibly insightful you are. Nap, you might want to start looking for boarding schools for high school. You might need a break by then.

  17. 11 November 2010 12:58 am

    :-)

    One of my favorite lines to my high maintenance child, “Well, I know you want [something that he wanted to happen but didn't]. And I want to be Queen of the World.”

  18. 16 November 2010 6:46 am

    How could you not know that the Earth revolves around the world. Thank God you have Peanut there to enlighten you.

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