Saturday, October 11, 2014

How come Mama does no work around here?

I come downstairs Saturday morning and everybody's just laying around, wasting the day away. The kitchen is full of dirty dishes, both small (responsibility of the five year old to load into the dish washer, with my supervision) and large (responsibility of the nine year old to wash in the sink, with my supervision). So I tell them both to get up and get to the kitchen, and this conversation ensues (in Lithuanian) once I leave the room:

Daughter #2: why do only we have to work all the time and not you (Mama)?
Mama: cause I work all week, and get you bums ready for school and kindergarten besides that.
Daughter #2: but I work all week too! I have to go to kindergarten.
Daughter #1: at least all you have to do in kindergarten is play, at school I have to work.
Daughter #2: no, I have to sleep too!
Mama: get to work now.
Daughter #2: but why don't you have to work?
Mama: go ask Tėtė.
Daughter #2: I know already, it's because you're his wife. 

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Why is a duck?

D #1 got her greatest wish, that D #2 take over the dishwasher duty. Little did she know that that means she is promoted to sink duty, i.e. dishes too big for the dish washer, and she now has to supervise D #2's dishwasher loading (as I have to supervise them both). So now D #2's complaining that D #1's telling her what to do.
Me: D #1's gotta tell you what to do.
Her: Why?
Me: Cause I used to do that, then D #1 did and I told her what to do. Now you do it, and she tells you what to do.
Her: But I know how to load it.
Me: You know some stuff, but you don't know everything. And if you don't do it right I'm gonna be mad at D #1.
Her: Why?
Me: Because it's her job to instruct you, just like it's my job to instruct her. That's the hierarchy.
Her: What?
Me: The hierarchy, when people above you tell you how to do your job.
Her: What is hieratchy?
Me: That's when people tell people what to do. At work Mama tells some people what to do, but other people tell Mama what to do, and still others tell those people what to do. That's what "hierarchy" is, more knowledgable people tell you what to do.
Her: But this is a "hat" (pointing, actually, to a basket on her hat). 

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Stupid Birds

Did you have fun chasing the birds?
Yes, I scared ALL of them!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Friend?

Every day I ask Daughter #2 how her day was, and she tells me about kindergarten, that she went outside and took a nap, what she played, and what she ate. This was the play part of one conversation:

D #2: I played with dolls.
Tete: By yourself or with a friend?
D #2: With my friend.
Tete: Which friend, Pijus?
D #2: No, another friend.
Tete: Who?
D #2: Friend.
Tete: Well, what's her name?
D #2: I don't know.
Tete: How you can call her your friend if you don't even know her name?
D #2: (sighs) I played by myself.