We moved to the country when my sweet daughter was three. She remembers very little about the city life. Sometimes I forget she has spent most of her life in the country. Sometimes she reminds me.
On a trip to the city when she was 4 she announced from her car seat "I didn't know there was an airport here." I only see a very popular, very large mall. I ask her why she thinks there is an airport there. She says "Because there is a parking garage. I thought the only airport here was by G's house." I quickly tell her "Honey that is a mall." To which she responds " What is a mall?" My son fills her in on the details. She says "No way, what is it really?" I tell her we are going to the mall.
I don't remember where we were headed that day but we went to the mall instead. Since then she has been to several malls. She loves them all.
I could not believe we had been to the airport more than the mall. Then there was the day she rode in an elevator for the first time. She had ridden in an elevator when she was a toddler but did not remember those days. These are all things we never thought about my son learning about. They were just parts of life. She is older now and I thought knew about most of the differences between the city and country.
That is until the other night. We were spending the night in the city and were out later than normal. We were going to stop and get something to eat on the way to the hotel. She was asking about different places to eat.
Here is our conversation.
Mom: I am not sure what will be open.
DD: Why would they be closed?
Mom: It's very late.
DD: Things at home would be open.
Mom: No they would not.
DD: They are always open when we go.
Mom: We are usually not out this late.
DD: It's not late. It's not dark outside.
Mom: Yes it is.
DD: It doesn't look dark.
Mom: That is because of all the lights
DD: So if it's that late where are the stars?
1 comment:
I can relate!! We went to a family reunion in the Los Angeles area. My sister and I wanted to show our kids the beach we used to play at so we found parking places, hung out at the beach then headed back to the vehicles. We had to cross a really busy street and Sam, nearly 5 at the time, just stepped out and started crossing. My sister started screaming at him about how he should know better and that was a spanking offense and finally I interrupted to tell her he'd never crossed a street before.
She started to tell me that was pitiful, but her dh, a country boy, just calmly said, "He's a country boy." That was the end of it.
Next time we went to the library in our small town, I made a point of parking on the opposite side of the street and teaching him how to cross.
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