Not Everyone (or every fish)Has A Daddy...

My daughter Dakota wants a fish. She saw them at the bank in these pretty glass vases with pretty pink stones and now she wants one. The oh-so-kind lady at the bank was gushing over how Betta fish are great because they require so little care and can live for a long time in these vases. I am smiling and nodding at her, while in my mind I have my hands around her neck telling her to shut up unless she wants to buy the fish and be the one to take care of it in a week when the newness wears off and the kid doesn't want to anymore. Then I have a flash of mommy genius and I say to Koti "Sure you can have one as soon as you show me you can keep your room clean."

Flash forward 2 weeks and BIG SHOCK, her room has not been touched and we don't have a fish. I am just beginning to think I am in the clear when at the check out in the supermarket yesterday Koti informs me and everyone in a 2 mile radius (she is not a quiet girl) that she is going to clean her room as soon as we get home so she can get her fish. Hear my inner groan there? Smile stayed in place though.

She goes on to ask if only girl fish have babies. So I tell her that yes just like people only girl fish are the mommy fish. She says she wants a girl so it can have babies. Ok, let's pause here for a second, this is where I should have known better and kept my mouth shut..But I didn't..I turn to her and say that she can only have 1 fish so there would be no daddy fish so no baby fish. She thinks for maybe a second, long enough for me to see the wheels going and know I am in trouble. Now I am packing faster and wishing she would get distracted....No such luck..She says to me and what now feels like everyone in town (she really is not very quiet) that not everyone has a daddy so why does her fish need one, why can't it just have a mommy, the mommy is the one who takes care of the babies.

Then I see it coming...She is about to ask me the tough stuff, the stuff you really don't want to talk about at the check out at the supermarket. But damn she talks fast, and before I can stop her she is going on about why, and what does the daddy do and if people dont have to have a daddy then fish dont and why and...the lady at the register is trying to hard not to laugh and the lady behind me is laughing....My 8 year old is this close to starting the "where do babies really come from" and "what are dads for and why do some leave" talk...In Shop Rite...in her less then quiet way, did I mention she is loud?...


I think I will go back to the bank and thank that nice lady....