It's A Tragedy

Cooper is in big trouble. He lifted off one of the keys on my beautiful mac laptop. I nearly died when he showed me. I might have even cried a little bit. In my frustration I told him he was grounded from all computer and video games until the computer was fixed. He was devastated. But he was pretty good about being grounded and didn't really push the envelope.

For my part, I basically forgot about it until I would try to use my laptop. Then I would get all mad, again. But honestly, I dropped the topic with Coop and only discussed it with him when he would say something to me like, "I can't play games. I'm grounded." Or, "I'm so sad I'm grounded."

So it was with a little bit of flustered embarrassment that I came face to face with my own words. There's something singularly appalling about hearing yourself through the words of your child. When I picked Cooper up from a babysitter the other day she was laughing so hard she was nearly in tears. She just couldn't wait to tell me what Coop had told her. We've used this babysitter from time to time and she's an older woman who raised 6 kids of her own, then decided to run a daycare in her home. She's fabulous and has heard just about everything, as you can imagine. But this little conversation really charmed her.

She pulled me aside and told me she'd had a serious and somewhat somber discussion with Cooper. He had told her he was grounded and the reason. She went along with the chat (and I think she might have been fishing a little bit, because seriously what better way to find out about people than from their 3yols?!?!?) and said something like, "Oh Cooper, that's terrible." To which he replied, "It's a tragedy. Ann, do you know what a tragedy is?"

Still playing along she replied that she did not, and would he please explain. She said his eyes got wide and he became businesslike and said, "It's a very, very, VERY big deal."

PS -- This morning Cooper came down to my room (at about 6 a.m.) and asked if he was grounded from anything. I sleepily croaked, "No." To which Cooper said (literally!), "Phew. I'm really bored of being grounded." (Also, he actually wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as he sighed his Phew.)