Aaaaaaaaaallllll Aboard!
I don't think it will surprise anyone when I say that I'm rather well educated.
And yet, I routinely am forced to come to grips with the knowledge that I am woefully unprepared to be the mother of a little boy. The mother of ANYONE other than a dead Russian writer.
My child is experiencing a fierce and requited love with Trains. My sister gave us this great train track with magnetic train cars before we left North Carolina. My parents are coming for a quick visit next week, so I was putting stuff away and shifting stuff around in the Boy's room (where they shall stay) and in the process I pulled out the train set.
The Boy sat to examine it and I, deciding that I needed a break anyway, sat down with him. I pulled out the tracks and put them together. I lined up the cars and showed him how they fit on the track. And yes, I completed the toy with the appropriate sound affects.
chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-CHOO-CHOO!
He was utterly captivated. He played with that train set all.day.long. And the next day, when we went in to get him out of his crib he met us with: "CHOO-CHOO?!" (The Boy is speaking in all caps all the time lately.) So, out came the train set and he chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo'd all morning long.
The problem is, I don't know much to tell him. I know that trains transport freight and sometimes people. I know that they're big and heavy. I know that long, long ago they were the primary means of long distance transport, but much beyond that...
I have no idea what the different people do who work on trains. I don't know what the different cars are called, or where they go and why they go by train and not truck or plane or whatever else. I find myself contemplating a visit to Wikipedia to look up Trains and try to inform myself in the most rudimentary way. I have no idea if my child will even CARE. He seems relatively content with his chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo-ing, but surely, I should be making it a more enriching activity than just chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo-ing, right?
This awakening to my own ignorance has led me to wonder, what else am I going to end up learning about as my Boy grows? Space? Dinosaurs? Construction vehicles? Legos? Heaven and Earth forbid, SPORTS?
And as my mind reels over this plethora of topics of which I know nothing about, I think about what my friends who are mothers of daughters have to learn about...
And I think that no matter who you mother, it's a whole world of new stuff you have to learn.
posted by M @ 7:00 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
This is something I find myself laughing about on a daily basis. I never thought I'd know so much about trains, trucks (construction trucks, emergency trucks, monster trucks... trucks of ALL kinds) cars and tractors. Never. I never expected that I'd be able to drive down the road and point out the Giant Excavators from the Backhoe Loaders and the Skid Steers from the Bulldozers. I never knew that I'd learn that trains are COUPLED and that the generator powers the engine which powers the motor which turns the wheels on a diesel electric locomotive. Never. But I do, and it makes me laugh. Have fun with it! Life with boys is definitely an adventure!
Let me just say that I can now tell you about every single type of construction vehicle avaliable to mankind (and any dervation thereof) all because Fussbot is into things with wheels. First it was cars but then it was construction vehicles FOREVER. We have recently moved into fire trucks/emergency vehicles and it was none too soon. I'd say check a kid friendly book out from the library and you'll learn everything you need to know. Also I'd bet You Tube has some great short viedos of trains moving or some guy explaining about trains that the Boy would really like. Best of luck!
Hmpf. I think I know a little more about construction vehicles than I do about, oh say, make-up? I apparently needed to be 'schooled' by this little girl. I am definitely going to have to learn about more girly things on youtube, wikipedia, etc.
Oh, you are so RIGHT!! I learned so much about soooo many things raising my boy. Trains, dinosaurs, dirt movers, dogs, cars, insects...and so on. We rode antique steam locomotives, toured train museums, saw fossils.....I loved every minute of it. Yet another way that having kids enriches your life!!
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