On Tuesday, everyone was back to business and the house was abuzz with activity. I had work and a board meeting, Erin had client calls and meetings, Amelia had school and Henry had therapy, preschool and drum lessons. Tuesdays are busy, busy.
It was also Inauguration Eve, and while I was making dinner, Amelia talked to me about how exciting it is that we’re having a new president tomorrow. While screaming inside, “YES,” I calmly nodded and said, “yes it is.” We talked about the tradition of the peaceful transfer for power in this country, and how our system was designed so that no one person could stay in the position for too long.
We talked about how exciting it is that we’ll have our country’s first woman Vice President, and how nice Joe Biden seems. She also said, as she has a few times before, that she doesn’t so much like Donald Trump because he is mean to people and doesn’t seem very nice. Knowing Amelia, and even with the light exposure she’s had to Donald Trump, I sincerely believe she pretty easily formed this opinion on her own. The angry, yelling guy who is always berating other people is really not her style.
So while I might agree, I did also want her to understand that just because Erin or I think something, that doesn’t mean she has to agree. So I explained to her that she should always know that is free to make up her own mind and form her own opinions, and they don’t have to be the same as mine or Erin’s. I said, “Everyone has the right to their beliefs, and different people often believe different things.”
She said, with a very earnest, straight face, “Kind of like you believe that naps are great and I don’t like naps.”
EXACTLY like that.
After dinner, I agreed to play some games with Amelia. There was one called Memory Palace where the board is made up of scenes representing rooms in a house, and players put animal characters in those scenes and make up little stories. It’s creative and fun and I love the stories Amelia comes up with.
In one of them, Amelia told the tale of a zebra. The setting was in the living room, and this zebra loved to watch TV. His favorite thing to do was to watch football, and his favorite team was the Packers. He loved watching the Packers every day, and he would take naps at halftime, setting an alarm so he’d wake up in time to see the second half. This zebra also really hated commercials, and would sleep through the commercials as well.
It was one of the better Zebra-focused stories I’d ever heard, so kudos to her on that.
We later pivoted to a game of Perfection, which is yet another one that Erin aces and the rest of us struggle with. After a few failed rounds for both Amelia and me, I suggested a team round, where we both worked to beat the clock together. Eureka! That one worked, and working as a team we won!
Shared perfection is still perfection, and I will take it.
