From the mouths of preschoolers

Ane and Lina are good friends, but they are similar enough in personality that they are often rivals. One major bone of contention between them is Auntie.

See, Auntie is quite a popular baby-sitter these days (when she’s not playing softball, that is). And she has baby-sat for Lina and Denny more than once – and is so loved by them that they are constantly after their mom to “have Auntie over again” to watch them.

And then you have the natural claim of Ane and Tad – she is the aunt closest to them, both in age and in location. In fact, there are less years between Auntie and Ane (just shy of eleven years) than there are between Auntie and myself (just a few months over fourteen years). Both Ane and Tad love Auntie – and she is pretty much the only baby-sitter they have, aside from Grandma and Gichan, and the occasional stand-ins by others (like Friend, Handy Girl, and Best Baby-sitter in the World). The great thing about Auntie is that she has discovered a nice balance between being “fun” and projecting the right amount of authority, and all the kids respect that.

On Friday, we met up with Aimee, Lina and Denny at the park to play for a couple of hours. I was going to pick up Auntie to bring her back to our house to baby-sit, because Friend, Doc, the Webmaster and I had tickets for the Mariners game that night. (They lost, by the way. Big shock.)

As we were all getting ready to leave the park, Aimee said to Ane, “Have fun picking up Auntie!”

“Yeah, have fun picking up our Auntie,” Lina chimed in.

Ane was indignant – as she has been in the past when Lina has claimed Auntie as her own. “Hey, Lina, she’s not YOUR Auntie – she’s MY aunt!”

Then Lina was hit with inspiration. “Hey, I have an idea! I know how we can share our Auntie! We can cut her in half!!”

Ane was stunned, then appalled. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…” she said slowly while Aimee and I laughed out loud.

When I arrived to pick up Auntie, I told both Auntie and Grandma what Lina had suggested, which made my mother double over in laughter. “Well, Auntie, now you know which one is your real niece!” Mom laughed. “The one who didn’t want you cut in half!”

Leave it to Ane to display the judgement of Solomon. Too bad it never lasts.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 1:22 am and is filed under Children, Family.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.