Monday, January 30, 2006

Viewing The Generation Gap

When my mother showed up at 6:08 this morning to drop off the puppy, she handed me a little plastic box that looked vaguely familiar. At first I thought it was a receipe box, but when I opened the lid I was surprised...It was our old View-Master set! It seems she came across it while cleaning, and thought my daughter might like it. Since Don't-Talk-To-Me-Before-Dawn-Daughter was not conscious enough to appreciate it at the time, I decided not to share it until she was a tad less groggy. So after school, once she dragged her backpack into the house and flung herself on the sofa, I showed it to her. The conversation went something like this:

Me: (holding up the red plastic View-finder): "Look what Bammy brought over."
Daughter: "What is it?"
Me: "It's a View-finder. You used to have one when you were little."
Daughter: Blank stare.
Me: "This one has all the sets I had when I was a kid. Look, there's Peanuts, and Woody Woodpecker, Tom and Jerry, and One Hundred And One Dalmations..."
Daughter: "I don't know what peanuts are."
Me: "Yes, you do. Charlie Brown."
Daughter: "Oh."
Me: "And there's Bonanza, and another Bonanza, and Raggedy Ann, and Aesop's Fables, Bambi, and Mother Goose Rhymes, and Grimm's Fairy Tales..."
Daughter: "What is e-sop?"
Me: "You know. They're stories. Like the Grasshopper and the Ants. And the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse."
Daughter: Blank stare.
Me: "The Tortise and the Hare?"
Daughter: "Like folk stories?"
Me: "Yeah, but they all taught a lesson. Aesop was the guy who wrote them."
Daughter: "Oh."
Silence.
Daughter: "Who is grim?"

Clearly I have failed as a parent, because it seems I did not teach this child anything.

Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 3:39 PM :: 3 Comments:

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