Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Oops

little kid loves Wal-Mart. Every day he asks me, "We go Walmart?" and looks sad or asks "why?" when I tell him no. My dad is the same way; my mom and I think they should go together each day and everybody would be happy, but that hasn't happened yet.

Today little kid came in from the porch and said, "I wanna show you sumtin'." I glanced over at him and said, "Cool, put it back outside."

I thought it was a rock. Then my brain jump started and I wondered why he was holding it pinched between two fingers and holding out his other fingers like they were sticky.

"What is that? Come here and show me."

He proudly marched over and held it out. It took a moment for my eyes to focus on what I was seeing.

Finally, the terrified face of a lizard came into focus, its mouth gaping and eyes bulging. I yelled and he dropped it, and we both watched it fall to the ground, twitch a few times, and die.

“Ohhhhh, ohhhhh, that's a lizard!” I cried out, dismayed.

“Yep. Dead lizard. It died,” he said matter of factly.

“It died because you killed it,” I said, angry as I scooped up the lifeless body in a paper towel, “You were not gentle with an animal, and this is what happened.”

"Was bad lizard. Bit me, came in my house, gonna bite my cats!"


"No, it was not a bad lizard and it did not bite you. This is bad. This is very sad."

“It come back?” he asked, looking worried.

“No, honey, it won't come back. That's what it means when you die, that you don't come back. That's why you have to be careful.”

He paused then, obviously deep in thought. We were quiet for a few moments when he looked at me and said, “We get new lizard at Wal-mart. We go Wal-mart, get new lizard! No be sad anymore,” with a triumphant smile.

I felt like I had somehow botched the opportunity to teach him an important life lesson, but he looked so happy with his belief that all things could be fixed with a trip to Wal-mart, that I decided to let it go. For the rest of the day he kept talking about how he caught a bad lizard that was trying to bite him and the cat. I'm a little concerned about the lack of remorse--and the love of Wal-Mart.

21 comments:

~Gretchen~ said...

My friend teaches pre-k at a public school. Every time a kid gets hurt with one of those "life threatening" injuries that doesn't even break the skin, she tells them, "That's okay. I'll get you another (arm/leg/head) next time I'm at Wal*Mart."

They always believe her.

Theresa said...

Gotta love Wally world.

Diva Ma @ Mommy Fabulous said...

Walmart can fix anything if you ask my 4 year old!

Preppy Pettit said...

On your rental. We had a wonderful home that the owner put on the market with 23 months left on the lease. watch out for that!

Jacquie said...

Walmart is there for fixing everything.

Anonymous said...

My 3 year old loves Costco. "Hey J, what do you want to do today?" "Maybe just go to Tosco." "Hey J, where should we go to lunch?" "How 'bout Tosco?" When my husband asked him his favorite places to go, Costco was the only one that didn't involve his grandparents' houses.

Anonymous said...

Careful, Wal-Mart eats babies! ;)

jenn said...

I would definitely be more troubled about the love of Wal-Mart than the lack of remorse about the lizard. Srsly.

Piece o' Coconut Cake said...

I can't believe he was able to catch it! Those things are fast...

Jennifer said...

Any time you are ready to get rid of Little Kid send him over my way. I hate me some lizards and that death would have been a day of celebration in our house. I would have patted him on the head like a puppy. "Good boy!!!! Now pick up that nasty thing and throw it outside." Because let me tell you, I wouldn't have been able to touch even a dead one with a papertowel.

TheOtherJennifer said...

I love that he was worried about the lizard biting his cat. And that he squoze the lizard but I'm sure not on purpose. WalMart is the salve to the soul.

Jess said...

Well, that's the problem with everything in your life- you shop at Walmart. Didn't you learn anything on BBC? ;)

Former Fat Chick said...

too bad he didn't get by the tail...the lizard would have dumped the tail and He would hae freaked out! hahaha, the always freaks kids out.

Melodie said...

I think it's time to break lk's Walmart habit. Katie is a Target freak, though. Whenever we go to visit my dad at work, the secretary there always gives Katie a dollar. Then we have to go to the Dollar Spot at Target so she can spend it.

AFRo said...

I'm with Jenn on the whole priorities for worrying about him... his love of Wal Mart definitely comes before his lack of remorse.

Look on the bright side... he was being protective of his other animals, so he does have a sense of responsibility when it comes to taking care of animals.

I just heart that kid. Seriously.

Anonymous said...

I kind of agree that things can be fixed by going to WalMart. Good luck teaching remorse and educating on death.

Anonymous said...

I'm with little kid. What if it was trying to bite the cat? Or him?

Those bastard lizards around my house know that if they want to live, they had better stay outside. Once they are in here, it's a death sentence.

I could really use little kid to help. I hate those stupid things.

Human runner said...

Little Kid reminds me of my kid, except that my kid is addicted to Target. I really think he sees it as an extension of the playground.

Maddness of Me said...

Oh, the poor thing. He has it all wrong. Target is where you go to make everything better. Walmart is where people go to die.

Joy said...

We don't have lizards around here... only behind glass. I'm finding all the talk about lizards to be quite amusing. Since we don't have them, I'm not sure how I would react. If they are anything like spiders... it wouldn't be good.

Life, Love And Lola said...

LMAO! little kid is such a gem!