flashback friday – 13 dec 2008

 DADDY/DAUGHTER CONVERSATIONS

Savannah rides her morning school bus with a couple of little cretins, errr, I mean little boys, that pick on her. This pair has been dealt with many times by the bus driver (not just for picking on S), but the problems never seem to get solved. Because of this, last year Tom started giving her a ride to school each morning, which has worked out really well. I have to wake up earlier than they do to get to work on time, so I usually get ready in blissful silence (at least after the boys leave!), and then I wake them both up just minutes before heading out the door. Savannah is totally a daddy’s girl, so I just assumed that this was good quality time for the pair.A few days ago I had another one of my sleepless nights, and I just could NOT drag myself out of bed on time and opted to gain at least 1 more hour of sleep before heading to work. Tom had an appointment at 10 a.m. which meant he also got to sleep in a little before showing up for it. Sooo… I decided that I would take Savannah with me when I left and drop her off at school. I don’t know if it was just because she doesn’t get to see me much in the mornings, but she was in full-on chat mode. She talked my ear off, never once stopping to catch a breath! Tom wandered in after I sent her in for cereal, and made the comment “Wow… she hardly ever talks to me… She just looks at me really weird.” Hmmm… There were so many ways I could have responded, but I decided to be nice and didn’t take the bait!As I was driving her to school, I decided to approach the subject to see if I could figure out why.

Me: So Daddy says that you don’t hardly even talk to him in the mornings… How come you don’t?

Savannah: Because he’s a GUY, and they just don’t like to say as many words (this stated with the tone of voice “Duh mom!”). Plus, he doesn’t do GIRL talk…

Me: O-Kay… He also says that you look at him weirdly… What’s that all about?

Savannah: (Real matter-of-factly, indeed, almost cheerfully): Oh, that’s because he’s got blood all over.

Me: What??!!!

Savannah: You know, from where he gets cut shaving.

Needless to say, I giggled the rest of the way to work. Later in the day I told Tom that I had figured out his problems, and shared the story with him. Yesterday, he called me after he got to work to tell me that things had gone much better, and she talked to him more.

To help set the conversation up, however, you need to know a little information about our darling Tweener. Savannah has recently been traumatized by the fact that two of her cousins who are only 2 years older than she have started wearing training bras. The horror! All of a sudden, you can’t even say the word without her saying “that’s disgusting!” I keep explaining to her that she’d better get used to the idea, because baby, your time is coming soon!

Anyway, back to the original story. Here’s how their conversation went:

Tom: So what kind of GIRL talk should we talk about?!

Savannah (looking at him to see if she’d really heard correctly): Umm, I don’t know..

Tom: Should we talk about BRAS!

Savannah (giggling): DADDY!

I think the ice has been broken. 🙂