Monday’s Child Is…Losing Her Innocence
So, the eldest girl is seven, this fact will have more significance in a few paragraphs. Old enough to be able to wipe her own bottom but young enough to still believe in fairies and Santa. It had been a busy weekend, seeing friends and having a decidedly stress free family day out at the circus ( a very rare occurrence I might add, — the stress free bit more than the circus bit) so because of all said ‘busyness’ Monday started as it meant to go on- a clusterf*ck. Forgetting to put lunches in bags. then forgetting said bags, ergo running a few mins late for school, then chasing those extra minutes all day.
3pm pick up — made it on time (finally caught those minutes), smiles all round, no homework cos of some sports win thingy — hurray, bags handed over, seat belts buckled. Take that Monday! Then I looked in the rear view mirror, and saw the eldest making a gesture, not just any old gesture mind, no, a decidedly adult gesture and then I heard the words that momentarily stopped my heart,” Mammy is it true that this is how ladies get babies? — — -showed us this, is this is how the baby gets in your tummy?”
Again folks, she’s seven, se-ven!!
Some little fecker in her class showed her this gesture and told her women have to have ‘ses’ to have babies (either the little so and so got the word wrong or she picked it up wrong, anyway thank heavens for small mercies). However am I alone in thinking this is much too soon to be on a first class child’s radar? I remember hearing rumours of the secret magic powers of our private parts around nine or ten, surely this is more the norm? Or am I being completely naive?
Anyway despite the strong urge to string the little fecker up ( I know he probably doesn’t understand what he is saying, and is more than likely just copying older siblings), I resisted and the red mist began to dissipate only to flare up again significantly as I voiced my concerns on the class parent’s WhatsApp group. Only one, I repeat one other mother acknowledged my distress. Was there a code of silence around this particular issue that I wasn’t aware of? Tumbleweeds blew through the group, a group which has previously been a veritable sewing circle on such important topics as lost jumpers and what plants were in bloom in the (organic) school garden.
Did I miss something? Is this not an issue that as parents we need to address? The need to keep our children, children. In a world dominated by social media, and easy access to adult content, it’s harder than ever to keep their innocence. Thankfully the teacher was more receptive and promised to keep her ears open for any further life lessons that the little fecker might be willing to impart.
Hopefully I managed to play down the whole thing to my daughter on that fateful Monday drive home, and it hasn’t been mentioned since but who knows if anything has taken root for later reference?
I mourn for her innocence as well as my own.
