So, these were the words my youngest son woke up saying this morning.
“I wanna wear my ‘da car’ tee-shirt, mum.”
It was his first day of preschool here in the States and he had what he was going to wear all planned out in his head.
He was wearing his ”da car” tee-shirt.
Being the ever-attentive, good mummy that I am, I begrudgedly happily pulled out what I thought was his beloved Cars tee-shirt for him to wear … cursing that it was at the bottom of the child’s stack of tees. When I handed it to the munchkin I sadly did not get the gleeful squeal of delight that I was fully expecting. Instead, I got a face that looked like a bulldog licking a thistle and those words again … “but, I wanna wear my ‘da car’ shirt.”
“This isn’t the right car shirt, son?” I asked him, patiently. By this time, the clock was a-ticking and I was worried we might be late.
“No, I want my ‘da car’ shirt,” he replied.
Insistently.
My heckles went up when I heard him say “want” and for a moment, I pondered whether it was an appropriate time to give my little man a lesson about the use of that word and the fact that I would actually really rather him say “I would like.” Knowing how I can ramble on, I obviously decided against it and went in the closet for another car tee-shirt.
This time, I came out … a triumphant twinkle in my eye … with his tee that had RC from Toy Story on it, but I was met with the same response as well as a stifled cry of sorts. Bless ‘im.
“Mum, I want my ‘da car’ shirt,” he whined
“I don’t know which one car shirt you mean, son,” I whined back. “Come on now, you need to get dressed or we’re going to be late.”
“Awww, mum,” he said looking at me tearfully.
Not wanting to have a parenting fail on my youngest son’s first day of preschool, I decided to look one more time for this bloody tee-shirt. Standing there, I started looking through the boy’s shirts, muttering to myself ”dar car ey?”
“Da car.”
Till I finally I spied it.
And, I swear it was like a thousand light bulbs going off.
Or at least a gazillion of those ridiculous Oprah aha moments.
“Is this what you want?” I asked my preschooler.
When he gave me a squeal of delight, I knew I had hit the jackpot.
I was holding a new tee-shirt his grandma had bought for him that had a guitar emblazoned on the front of it. He had meant “guitar” not “da car.”
Finally, a parenting result.
He quickly finished getting dressed and we headed out the door … with me attempting another parenting result by trying to get him to pronounce the word guitar correctly.
I’m pleased to report that his first day went really well … all the better for knowing one of his teachers. He was a tad confused by the differences between here and in the UK, for example, he kept asking what colour his teacher was going to be. This was a little embarrassing , but not so after I explained that at his nursery in England all of his teachers were colour coded so to speak … they each wore a different colour apron and the children were assigned to either the red group, the blue group, the green group or the yellow one. Yeah, they don’t do that so much here.
He was also upset by the fact that he wouldn’t be having lunch at preschool. No matter whether he was in the morning or afternoon session at his nursery in England, he would have lunch there with his friends and so he doesn’t quite understand why that’s not the same here.
When I picked him up, one of the first things he did tell me was this … “guess what mum, everybody weeeeeally liked my ‘da car’ tee-shirt.”
Result. I think.
==========
The teen and tween had good first days too — thankfully, they were put in the correct classes and by that I mean those advanced and gifted ones. Last week, I had to get all Yorkshire ghetto with the teen’s high school guidance counselors when they tried to tell me that they were not going to give him credits for the classes he took in England. And, that he very likely may have to repeat some of them.
*cough, cough*
Sometimes, one has to get a little forceful when it comes to one’s children. Ye know?
What you said