Making Sense

Our kids are trying to make sense of the world and we’re trying to make sense of them.

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Sumner: Mom, if I wanted to and I was empty and you gave me permission, I could eat a quarter of a pie. I could put it all in my mouth at one time.

Me: Really. I can put my fist in my mouth.

Sumner: Me too.

Me: What if you were full?

Sumner: I would vomit the pie up.

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Ramona: Mom, was this Barbie alive?

Me: No.

Ramona: Is it dead?

Me: No, it was never alive.

Ramona: Not even it the time of dinosaurs!

Me: No even then.

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Sumner has been making it clear lately that he doesn’t get enough attention. He’s right. Ramona edges him out and demands everyone’s attention. We were talking about this...

Sumner: When it happens I don’t feel smart.

Me: What do you mean?

Sumner: Well, like at school I am always smart. I am really smart.

Me: Huh, and when you don’t get attention you don’t feel smart?

Sumner: Yeah.

Later, Sumner was explaining to Phil why he likes to wear this fleece buttondown shirt to school everyday.

Sumner: You know how I am the smartest kid in that class? Well, I wear this shirt because I am smart and this shirt is like the kind smart people wear, like professors.

Phil: Huh.

Sumner: When I have a bad day at school I don’t remember it the next day.

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What do you say to that? Sumner, there’s lots of kinds of smart. You’re the kind of smart that’s valued in school, but there’s other types too. OR Sumner, you probably shouldn’t go around saying you're the smartest kid in the class. OR Smart people don’t have to wear collared shirts. OR Sumner, eating a lot of pie will make you sick. We don’t say anything.