Out of the Mouths of Babes

I know...all moms think that their kids are exceptionally clever. But just to show that by the time mine were in kindergarten, they were truly extraordinary...allow me to share these two stories.
It was about that time, when Jennifer was in kindergarten, that my girl's dad decided to leave the family. At first I tried to arrange meetings between them and their father...but his drug abusing lifestyle made that impossible. (When he would agree to meet us, we'd show up...and he wouldn't.) We were not divorced yet and he was running up a lot of bills. Bill collectors were calling me and threatening to garnish my wages for things I knew nothing about. Finally, I decided that I needed to make everything official and file for a divorce. I wanted to break the news to my girls in the easiest way possible...so we went for a drive...to Dairy Queen. As we were enjoying our dipped cones and driving around I causally said, "Girls...I need to tell you something." They looked up and then continued eating. "Your dad and I are going to get a divorce." "NO!" Jennifer blurted out. "I'm sorry. He's running up a lot of bills and people are coming after me to pay them...and I just don't have the money to do that." I drove along quietly, letting them process that. After a few blocks I said, "I have some more sad news to tell you." Jenn cut me off, "Not yet." We drove around for a while longer and then she said, "Okay...what?" "Well...the reason that your dad hasn't been meeting us when he says that he will, is because he has a drug problem. I'm sorry. I don't know what to do about it." Things were quiet for a bit and then Jenn spoke up, "Mom...that's dad's problem. He has to handle it." I was blown away. How did she get so smart, so soon?
By the time Stephanie was in kindergarten, her dad had been gone for several years. Things in our family were different than in most of her friends' families. There were no men around...we girls did everything for ourselves. Mom and I did all of the traditional "men jobs." We worked, took care of the yard, did the minor home repairs, carved the turkey at Thanksgiving, brought in and set up the tree at Christmas, took out the trash...everything...big or little. I was glad to show the girls that we could be self sufficient as women. That's a good life lesson. Each year when we went out to the pumpkin patch to get our Halloween pumpkins, we never went alone. There were always at least of couple of the girls' friends that came with us. It was more fun that way. The rule was always the same: You can have any pumpkin you want...as long as you can carry it. Of course they never went for little ones. They chose the biggest ones that they could possibly carry...or roll. Steph had just started kindergarten and had made a couple of close friends...they both came with us to the pumpkin patch that year. As they struggled to bring in three giant pumpkins from the field...I heard one of the little girls say, "We need a man to carry these for us!" (Had her dad come with us, he certainly would've carried their pumpkins for them...even if it took a couple of trips...he loved to spoil them.) Steph continued rolling her pumpkin towards the checkout gate and said, "We don't need a man, we need a wheelbarrow!"
See...truly extraordinary!