Out of the Mouths of Babes

The Little Man was outside drawing on the concrete with chalk... a whole ocean full of sea creatures surrounding the car... I was inside on the couch reading a magazine.

The conversation went like this:

"Mum? What would you prefer? For your mother to die before you knew her, or to watch her die?"

I was stunned. Shocked. A little bit taken aback... was he being a smarty pants? Where did this come from? Such a philosophical question from my little man. I decided to take it further and see how his mind was working.

"Well... that's an amazing question. Where did that questions come from? School?"

"Oh no... I just think about these things sometimes."

"Hmmm.... ok, well, what would the difference be between the two really?

"Well, if my mother died before I knew her, that would be like I was a baby right? So I wouldn't get to know her and what she did and liked and stuff and because I was a baby, it wouldn't matter so much to me because I wouldn't know that she was dead. So my heart wouldn't get broken.

But if I grew up with her and then she got sick and I had to watch her die, my heart would break but I would be happy too because then I would remember her and I could be happy about that."

And then he went off all thoughtful and kept drawing smacks of jellyfish (apparently that is the collective name for jellyfish).

I asked him over breakfast the next day if he had decided which option would be good for him.

"Definitely I would want to know you, so I guess I would just have to be with you when you die."