From the Mouths of Babes

Hi, there! Long time, no write! Well, I could start this post off with the laundry list of reasons for why I haven't posted here in almost a year but that would be whiny and boring. Instead I'm going to dive right into a subject which I dub to be Too Fucked Up for WTE (my other blog. If you don't already subscribe, what is wrong with you??? Just kidding. But check it out some time).

So.

Olivia and I went to the park tonight at dusk because I'm super cool and she thinks it is the most wonderful thing in the world to run around the playground when it is just dangerous enough to break an ankle due to low lighting. Don't worry, we're never alone at the playground at dusk. That's when the local neighborhood moms let their older kids burn off their remaining steam before bedtime on school nights. Tonight, we once again ran into our adorable friend Chloe.

Chloe just turned seven years old and says she is going to be a babysitter when she grows up. She is going to be insanely good at it, I can tell. This kid is positively wild about toddlers. As luck would have it, as long as Olivia is well-rested, she adores Chloe, too. If there has been no nap that day, Chloe is just a tad too intense for my slightly cranky girl and Livi tells her flat out that she just wants to be left alone (it's awesome - she says it with all the melodramatic flair of a soap opera star, complete with stomping foot and fists thrust down at her sides. I admire her honesty). This evening, the minute Chloe saw Olivia walking toward the playground, she gave a big wave and ran up to her with open arms. Olivia, thrilled, yelled "Hi!" and also ran forward, ready to hug and be hugged. It was so cute I almost puked.

Chloe doesn't mess around. She swept Olivia up in an awkward embrace (Olivia is more than half her height and probably weighs at least half of what Chloe weighs) and waddled over to the baby swings with her. Their favorite activity is for Chloe to push Olivia as high as those baby swing chains will allow, under dog style. Liv thinks this is hilarious. I am waiting for the day it results in a concussion for Chloe.

As Chloe is pushing Olivia in the swing, her friend (who's name I can never remember, but who always wants me to watch her do "this really cool knew trick", which always ends up with her doing the same lame maneuver on the monkey bars that I cannot believe she honestly thinks is cool or new) walks over. I'm just going to call her Alice from now on. Alice starts telling me that she doesn't like this cold weather we're having and that yesterday? She got a cold because she was so cold! I totally agree - cold weather blows, even though I've never actually gotten a cold simply from the temperature outside.

Chloe pipes in and says "I thought you were at your dad's house yesterday," which leads to this whole conversation about how their parents are divorced and neither girl ever sees her dad because they only go every other weekend. This is precisely when Chloe drops the bomb and says to Alice "Didn't your parents get a divorce because your dad stuck a gun in your mom's face?"

Wait, wha...?

Alice says "No... My parents got divorced because my step-dad beat up my real dad because he wanted to be with my mom."

OMFG, seriously?!

Chloe says "Well, who told me the other story?" and both girls get to thinking for a moment. "Oh, that's right. It was Amanda's dad who had the gun."

It was all I could do to keep myself from shaking them both and screaming YOU GIRLS ARE ONLY SEVEN! DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW MESSED UP THAT SHIT IS???? and then giving them both huge hugs and ice cream cones in an effort to make things a little better.

All I can do is hope that Olivia can't even comprehend a conversation like that when she is their age. Parents get divorced. It's a reality and no child is going to ever truly be sheltered from it, even if their own folks stay together. And, I know from experience that divorce is a highly emotional event that makes it extremely difficult not to vomit drama all over the people around you. But, Dear Lord, please let my child and her friends have parents who can handle even high-intensity emotional situations with a bit more aplomb than waving guns and driveway beat-downs. Seriously.