Talking With Jaylin

Parents, do you ever have conversations with your children that just make you scratch your head? Do you ever feel like you are talking to both Abbot and Costello? That happens to me from time to time. I know Jaylin means well, and I am sure he knows exactly what he is talking about, but sometimes there is a communication failure between us somewhere.

For example, we were in the grocery store the other day. And as we were walking through the produce section, we saw a backhoe sitting there. Not exactly the kind of thing you usually find among the produce, but apparently they were installing a new something or other out in the middle of the floor that would need electricity and/or water, so they had to dig to get to it all.

Of course, I started with the expected joke about not knowing that Kroger carries backhoes now, or something along those lines. And then I said something about the large mound of dirt that was there.

“Where did the dirt come from?” Jaylin asked.

“From the big hole that they dug,” I said.

“But why is it there?”

“Because they dug it with the backhoe.”

“TOBACCO?”

“No, the BACKHOE.”

“Oh, okay. So what is a backhoe.”

“That big yellow thing that they dug the hole with.”

“But why did they dig it?”

At that point, I suddenly found myself needing to look at the produce. Or bread. Or something.

The inquisitive mind of a twelve-year-old is always good for some fun. Just add a backhoe. But not tobacco.