Just a couple weeks in Kindergarten...

Ethan had a homework assignment at the beginning of the school year (mid September) that was to make a book box. Over the course of the year, they create many little paper books in an effort to learn to read. This box is the place where they can keep all their books, which they can read at home throughout the year.

I gathered a lot of our art supplies for this project, as well as plain red wrapping paper (left over from the valentines box). Ethan decided to wrap only the sides of the box we found, because he liked the "swoosh." (his project...) He decorated the box with stickers, googly eyes, puff paint dots, foam letters and marker stampers. Then, he discovered some of the Halloween items in the art supplies. The foam bats on a stick that he had to have. And then...

E: "Oooo mom! I have to use that spider!"

M: "Why?"

E: "Because it will FREAK the girls out!"

M: "'Freak the girls out'?? Ethan, where did you hear that?"

E: "Come on mom, it will scare them, you know - freak them out. I have to use it."

M: "Why do you want to scare them?"

E: "Because they will scream and be freaked out."

M: "And that's a good thing?"

E: "Yes mom..." (in the tone of "don't you know anything?!")

M: "Okay (knowing it was really harmless). How about some of these cool glitter shapes?"

E: "Dude, ARE you serious? I can't use that... only GIRLS use that stuff."

M: "First, 'dude are you serious?' Where did you hear that and do you think it's appropriate to say to me. "

E: "Sorry mom. That's what they say at school."

M: "We've been using those glitter shapes for art project for years and you've never had a problem with it."

E: "Come on mom, glitter is for girls. Just like pink. I can't use anything pink, it's for girls."

M: "Really?"

E: (sensing a "lesson" coming on...) "I know, colors are just colors and we like them all. But really mom, pink is a girl's color. I think Oliver is a girl, he likes pink." (giggle, giggle)

M: "Oliver's not a girl, he just likes all colors."

E: "I don't know mom, he really likes pink..." (giggle, giggle)

M: *** big sigh ***

So, to sum it up... a few weeks into Kindergarten and my once naive little boy now wants to "freak out the girls," is calling me "dude", is already talking like a teenager and I am clueless as to the "in" things, and he is stereotyping. Wow. It's like a "life comes at you fast" commercial. What the heck?! By the end of the year will be asking for tattoos, body piecing, wanting to grow his hair into a shag (are those even still in?) and asking to drive the car...

(In case you are wondering, I wrote this conversation down... there is no way I could remember it all two months later! Glad I did, it still makes me laugh.)