I came home from the gym today with the family parked in front of television, per usual. Cereal bowls in hand they seemed to be watching a science program.
My kids are television/electronic junkies and they’ll take any fix they can get. Their father likes to park the television on a science program or a Spanish cartoon channel. He’s “educating” them.
This being the usual morning routine I unload my stuff and get my coffee. I’m giving them a minute before I “crack the whip” and get the kids to do their morning chores before we all leave for work.
In comes Conor, the 7 year old. And the conversation goes like this.
“Mommy did you know disease killed the Dinosaurs? Yeah, snails carry deadly diseases. They’re killing the frogs. There’s been a 30 percent decre… decre…”
“Decrease,” I say with a big grin.
You have to understand how adorable his little voice is and the fact he’s energetically wandering around the kitchen in a Bee pattern while he relays this information.
“Yeah, a 30 percent decrease in the world’s population of Amphibians.”
He stops and looks at me with this very worried expression, “And WE could be next!”
I’m trying not to laugh while I gently reassure him that snails are NOT going to kill us because we don’t eat them.
Of course, I yell into the other room, “Brian, stop terrorizing the children with Science!”