Monday, October 10, 2005

Peanutisms

The other day we had a discussion about the Pledge of Allegiance. It was quite humorous actually.

Me: You do realize you don't have to say the Pledge if you don't want to?

Peanut: But I want to.

Me: Do you know what the Pledge means? Do you know what allegiance means?

Peanut: What?

Me: It's a pledge that says you are going to support your country, no matter what. That's kinda what allegiance means, too.

Pause. Either he was thinking I'm nuts or trying to stay quiet so I'd shut up.

Me: You don't have to say "under god" either....because it wasn't in the original.

Peanut: starts reciting the Pledge, gets to the "under god" part and informs me he will say it because, "If [he] skip[s] it, [he]'ll get confused."

Can't really fault that logic, can I?

This morning we had our annual Columbus Day talk.

Me: Today is Columbus Day, do you remember who he is?

Peanut: No....

Me: He's the guy who supposedly "discovered" America but really he landed in the Bahamas, killed a few hundred Indians then took a bunch back to Spain with him.

Peanut: with an interesting look on his face, "He wasn't very nice."

Me: No, not really. Anyway, today's Columbus Day and you're probably going to do stuff in school to learn about him, that's why I told you about the real Columbus.

Peanut: But mom, Ms. S. and Ms. W. are planning a fiesta for Christopher Columbus. I wanna go to the party. The party's good right?

Again, who can fault that logic? Hmmm, party or truth? Of course 6 year olds are gonna pick the party!

But I can just see him at some random moment spewing the same stuff I've told him to his teacher and/or classmates. It's what kids do at times to let you know they really were listening.