The Loser Cruiser, the run home:
“Momma, do Snow Queens get cold?”
“What do you think, Ren?”
“They don’t, Ren.”
“They do!”
“Mare, Ren’s the expert on Snow Queens, I’m totally giving it to her.”
A scowl, a grin.
“I win!!”
“REN.”
“Sorry, Momma. Mare: I win. But I still love you.”
“You only won because Momma let you.”
“MARE.”
“Momma for the variety show you need to take me to the party store and buy me three costumes, three Indian costumes.”
“I don’t need to do anything. NATIVE AMERICANS,” I add. The Indian thing super-bugs me.
“You do! You need to, they said.”
“Who said?”
“The coach. She’s a middle schooler.”
Oh, right, damn, get her to do my taxes, then.
“Mare, you can’t afford three Native American costumes. And by you, I mean me, and tell her that. And why are you buying for everyone?”
“I can, I can use my birthday money.”
“NO!! MARE!! WE WERE GONNA USE DAT TO GO TO DA NORTH POLE WAAAAAAA!!”
“Ren, friends are more important than the Noth Pole. Right, Momma?”
FYI I have a 101 degree temp.
This is my life now.
Please get well
It won’t be too long before there is a third little voice piping up in those conversations!
Hope you feel better soon.
Mary wants to use her birthday money to by costumes for her friends? Awwwwrrrrrr, what a sweetie pie. Just tell her that it doesn’t mean the same if she tells everybody after that she did it!
I will come and take the Bigs to the North Pole so you can get some rest. We’ll eat cotton candy and drink melted snow. The Little, you need to keep as I lack the means to feed her. When she grows into cotton candy in a couple of years, she can come with. And you can go to a spa and eat expensive cheese and drink delicious wine.
Feel better soon!!
Sorry you are sick.
sorry to hear you’re sick — i am too.
just wait until you have THREE of them bickering in the backseat. but think of it this way — they’re supplying you with an endless source of material!
Hope you feel better soon. Mary is so sweet & good-hearted.
Yuck.
I repeat my call for paid sick days for moms. With babysitters.
Oh, the indian/native american thing bugs me too. It’s a mistake that should have been corrected years ago and yet people persist while thinking it’s a problem like black/african american. I’m not usually bothered by these sort of things, but this one just irks me. My son is in kindergarten and they taught him the short i sound using the word indian as referring to a native american. I’m trying to contact the publishers of the school books to let them know I don’t appreciate their encouraging this mistake’s continuation on the next generation.
Okay, rant enough. Get better soon.
feel better soon, momma!
Just thought I would clarify for you…while some prefer Native American, others prefer Indian and still others prefer American Indian. It’s mostly white people that have all the problems with the names. Guilt and all, you know. On our reservation in eastern NC, we are “Cherokee Indians”. Just thought I could perhaps assuage your non-native guilty conscience. Your child (vis a vis her superior) was in fact, correct.
Jeanine– thank you! This is excellent information. I did not know that “Indian” is not widely considered offensive any more. As far as you know, is “Native American” no longer preferable or are they interchangeable?