Monday 2 July 2012

Who will look after my baby?

Betty, at five years old, is consumed with worry about who she is going to marry, and who is going to look after her baby, if and when she has one.

She regularly questions me about where she is going to live, who is going to drive her and her baby to the shops, and whether or not she can still have her princess night light when she is married. She even asked me: 'Will you sort out my baby's milk for me?'

She looks slightly horrified when I tell her that she will have to look after and feed her own baby, and maybe even drive herself to the shops.

Almost every afternoon, when she gets home from school, the only information that she will offer up, is which boy in her class has proposed to her that day.

With a very serious, slightly worried look on her little face, she will say: 'Dan says he is going to marry me.'

'Oh right' I say, with slight intrigue.

'What? Did you think I was going to marry Robert?' she says. 'Robert told me today that he HATES you because you are always buying hoovers.'

'Probably a good job that you aren't going to marry Robert then,' I tell her.


The names have been changed to protect the innocent

6 comments:

sadie said...

hmm. it must be the thing that bothers all 5 & 6 year olds.

girly girl is just the same, worrying about her future.

Her proposals go between Harry and Danny. On Saturday she looked at me with furrowed brow and said 'I don't know if I'll marry Harry or Danny'. I said well, you might not marry either, and might meet a nice chap later on.

Then I get 'mum, when you're a nan (cheers for that thought daughter), will you still live here?'. I've said yes. She is at the worry stage, where she asks me when I'm going to die, when she's going to die, all that sort of thing.

quite pressured being a mum when you are asked the unanswerable!

mind you, simple solution. If you stop buying hoovers, then Roberts your man (and future SIL)!
x

Elsie Button said...

Hi Sadie, it's reassuring to hear that this is a normal process for 5 year olds to go through - it seems way too young to be worrying!! X

Expat mum said...

I love the random information that gets thrown in with their comments - like your addiction to Hoovers!

nappy valley girl said...

My boys ask these kind of questions too - well not so much about babies, but this morning LB2 asked me where he would live when he was grown up and where I would live. I said he could choose what country he lived in and he said he wanted to be wherever Daddy and I were living. It does seem to be a stage they go through, worrying about growing up and whether their parents will always be there for them.

One Mother Notes said...

This is brilliant. So cute that she's genuinely concerned about this stuff at her age.

Anonymous said...

From the other side, Charlie regularly comes home with notes and hearts and drawings done by one or another of his various girls. I don't think he really gets it. His main girlfriend is always borrowing his clothes without asking when she comes over. It's cute, but slightly worrying. What's interesting is his complete and utter masculine reaction - he's happy to tell me who he's going to marry, but really he just wants to talk about Minecraft and how badly he wants a Scalextric...