Life's Lessons

It is our usual practice to ask Finn how his day was and what he did at school during dinner time. Sometimes (usually) this seems like an exercise in futility, as he rarely answers with anything more than "good" and "I played with my friends." Scintillating, no? Last night, however, we got this for an answer, "Aidan and I pretended to be bad guys stealing someone's puppy."

Um, OK. How to respond here? A "that's nice, dear" doesn't really seem to cut it.

My reaction was actually one of humor, and the thought that at least he's using his creative side, right? At least he's not ACTUALLY stealing a puppy. But I wanted to know more. So, between smiles and chuckles, M. and I quizzed Finn on this little play scenario.

Who's puppy were you stealing? Keira's.
(As one of only two girls in Finn's class, she often gets the brunt of any imaginary play, she is always the one in need of rescuing/in peril.)

Did anyone try to stop you from stealing the puppy? Yes, a super hero.
(Finn has been getting really interested in super heroes over the last few months. It must be an age thing, as he has never really seen any movies or TV shows about super heroes, they just sort of appeared on his radar and he's been running with it. Currently Spider Man and Iron Man are his favorites, but he's also very curious about Super Man, Batman, and the Incredible Hulk.)

Which super hero? Iron Man.

Was Keira upset you were trying to steal her puppy? No, we were just pretending, so it's OK. But Miss Z. (teacher) says we can't pretend to be married.

OK, wha...? I was tracking with the fake puppy stealing story, but now we're talking fake marriage? Has someone been taking tips from Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag again?

Upon further conversation, it seems as though one of the 4-year-olds in the next classroom up wanted to "pretend marry" one of his classmates (meaning Finn was not the groom in question). Miss Z. overheard this and told the two involved children "We don't pretend to be married" (Imagine Finn retelling this in as stern a voice as a 3-year-old can muster). I'm not really sure what catastrophic event Miss Z. thought was going to happen next. Simulated sex in the playground playhouse, perhaps? For goodness sake, these kids are barely more than babies! Pretend marriage is harmless enough. My brother may not remember, but I have plenty of memories of dressing him and a childhood friend up and forcing the two of them to marry each other. All in good fun, right, Andrew? Of course, perhaps that has had repercussions into his adult life I hadn't anticipated...

Bottom line, Finn's lesson from school yesterday: Stealing puppies is OK, marriage is bad

If we can just stress that the puppies should be stolen from puppy farms only, and not loving homes, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of activists out there that would call this one a victory :-).