At about 7:15, Vivi decided that she wanted to read in bed under the covers with a headlamp she’s appropriated from me. We headed into her room, where Julia decided to join in the fun (in her own bed). Everything went fine until it was time for actual lights out at 7:30. Vivi started crying because she wanted to read “all night long!” That preliminary crying developed into full-blown weeping about how she (unlike Julia) doesn’t have her own headlamp, just the one she’s “borrowed” from me. After a few minutes of piteousness, she decided to let me rub, no scratch, no rub, no SCRATCH her back. As I did, her weeping subsided and various questions came to mind: where did we get our last name? who invented racism? did “segreckation” come before or after slavery? when can she have her own headlamp? Luckily, by then she was tired enough that I could just promise to address that last issue in the morning, and snuck away while she finally fell asleep.
A six-year-old who asks questions about racism and “segrickation” deserves her ver own headlamp. Right away.