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How I Gave My Kids a Superpower Without Even Trying
Have you got the potential to do this? Go for it. You won’t regret it.
My kids are four, three, and one. We’re in the local supermarket, laying our few items on the self-service checkout. As with everything I do with three under five, this doesn’t go smoothly. A fight ensues over who can lift the chocolate biscuits out of the basket. Then something happens. A tall man with kind eyes cuts across to help me. ‘Mum,’ my eldest shouts, appraising him, ‘he looks like the Big Friendly Giant!’
‘Please ground, swallow me up.
Most parents would will the ground into swallowing up their whole family, leaving nothing but their basket. Not me. I calmly agreed and told them to be kind to the helpful giant.
Now, if you think I’m irritatingly zen, you would be wrong. I blush easily, and the burn of my cheeks reddening is way more familiar than I would like. But my kids are rarely the cause, whatever they may shout in public. Why?
Not all superheroes wear capes.
Because my kids have a superpower, they are bilingual.
My mother tongue is the language they speak with me in a country where English is dominant. If they use words that could offend someone, I don’t worry because they…
