Friday, January 18, 2008

How we behave around guests

Abby's school class is hosting an exchange student from the arctic. His name is Marshmallow, and he is a stuffed polar bear. Each night, a different child from class takes Marshmallow home to spend the night, and returns him to class the next morning. While visiting, the child must write a story in Marshmallow's Journal about what he did while with that child.
Abby was soooooo excited to give Marshmallow a tour of the house and introduce him to our dogs. When it came time to come up with an activity that would be "Journal-Worthy" she knew she had a great idea.
"Mommy, we should watch a bear movie with him so that he feels more at home."
"Abb... we need to do *something* with him, not watch TV." For the love of God, I couldn't have her write about watching TV all night with him..... what the heck kind message would that send to her teacher and all the other moms who will read back pages of the bear's journal, just waiting to judge who did what and how perfectly educational it was?!?
"But that's what I want to do with him."
"Abby, NO. Figure something else out!" I said, kinda on the grumpy side.
Abby cupped her hands around Marshmallow's ears and stared at me, tapping her foot on the floor.
"Mama?"
"Yes?"
"Is that approprible behavior around a guest in our house?"

damn. I got schooled by the manners-police.

In the end we watched Brother Bear. And then we read all about Polar Bears in Abby's Santa-approved Encylopedia of Animals. See?? We're fun AND educational!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You've been caught and corrected.