Discussions During Commute

So, I have been slammed with completely mind-numbing tasks, at work.  Data entry and filing.  The plus side is, I get to exercise my knowledge of the alphabet.  The bad news is, I don't get very much time to write.  At least, not whenever I am so inclined, hahaha.  I thought I'd take a moment to convey a couple of topics my daughter and I coveredd this morning as we commuted to daycare and work:

 

Chocolate Rice Crispy's.  My daughter seemed baffled that they did not have chocolate Rice Crispy's when I was a kid.  Crazy, eh?  What kind of backwater society did I grow up in???  Chalk that up to "comparable to Granfather's 'walking through 6 feet of snow (both ways) to/from school, everyday' storeies".  Except mine goes something like this...."When I was your age, not only did we not have chocolate Rice Crispy's, our Rice Crispy's didn't have sugar!  We had to add our own!"  Oh, the horror.

 

Then, we discussed jobs.  I made the mistake of mentioning lawyers.  Yeah, sure...it's a job.  So, is a bandito but, I didn't feel the need to mention that one.  So, lawyer knocks aside, she called me on it and wanted to know what a lawyer does.  I thought about it for a second and decided that comparing a lawyers to vampires would probably mean I'd have to do more explaining than I cared to so, I decided to go woth the truth (as best I could).  I gave her a scenario where say, somebody accuses Daddy of stealing something (I probably could of come up with something less insedious but, I was on the spot and burglary came to mind).  They call the police and they arrest Daddy.  Daddy says, "Wait!  I didn't steal anything!" and I call a lawyer.  I tell the lawyer where I was when the other guy got robbed and I tell him how I couldn't have done it!  Daddy pays the lawyer and the lawyer talks to the judge.  The judge listens and decides that the lawyer is right and tells the police that they are wrong, Daddy did not steal anything and the police let Daddy go home.  I didn't convey that sometimes lawyers get paid and their clients still go to jail.  I felt that it was best to leave positive thoughts in her head and she can get the details later on.  She asked me what uniforms lawyers wear.  I told her that the dress like regular people - just nicer.

 

That led to a discussion about soldiers and why they wear uniforms.  I told her that because when they are fighting in war, they want to make sure and shoot only the bad guys and not their fellow soldiers.  I try not to bias my daughter n these things and tell her  the truth because it is all over television.  I just try and give her the facts as I believe I know them.  Does that make sense?  Anyways, she asked if the bad guys wear uniforms, too?  I told her, yes...kinda...sometimes...because they don't want to shoot their fellow bad guys, too.  I told them that it is against the rules of the Geneva Convention to wear uniforms that aren't for your side.  Yeah, I know...'Geneva Convention' but I thought I'd throw that out there anyways.  I told her that there are even rules in war.  I thought this might reinforce the concept of rules applying to everyone - at all times.  If I put a name with a ruleset, perhaps this would add more impact to it?  Anyways, it doesn't really matter.  If she forgets it or, remembers it...the point is, it is truth and it won't (hopefully) bite me in the butt, later on! 

 

And from there, 'rules' topic is a springboard for conversation that I feel more comfortable talking about because the flipside of following rules is order and benefit.  (WARNING!!! RANT FOLLOWS IN PARAGRAPH!)  We discuss how things work well when everyone works together and goes by the rules and how not playing by the rules makes it 'not fun' for everyone else.  And that goes to 'fairplay'.  And then, I think to myself, "How is it that my 4 year old" is learning and understanding these concepts when I can turn on the news at anytime of the day and bear witness to countless people who never understand it?  (Yeah, yeah, yeah....I'll get off my soapbox in a second)  It's not the people who know the rules and choose to disobey them so much as it is the people who don't see the full picture...or, who can see the picture but choose to warp it to look how they want it to look.  They are the people who commit crimes because "they need to - to survive" and shut their vision to the plight of their victims.  They choose to believe that their survival is more important than their victims.  Of course, they counter with a 'Robin Hood' arguement of 'haves versus have nots".  The problem with that is, it isn't always about material objects.  If you have ever been robbed, you understand that it isn't so much the items that were stolen as much as it is about the feelings of violation.  The criminal is not only taking a possession, he is changing the victim's mind.  Their future actions and thoughts will be shaped or influenced by those actions which cannot be undone.  And that is just theft.  That doesn't include other types of crime. 

 

Okay, okay...I got a little off track.  It is just that my mind has started to view things in a different light when I try to translate the world for my kids.