Of Nuggets and Surprises

Two stories that are somewhat related……………….

Story One:

Our Grandson, Jace is getting ready to move to 7th grade. Well, when he was 5 years old and in Kindergarten he visited the house and it led me to make a rational generalization. That rational generalization being the following, “It must be a universal requirement for Kindergarten age children to say exactly what is on their mind.” There, I said it.

It seemed that every time he came over to the house and was there for a few minutes he would proclaim, “Grandma, I’m hungry!” Gee, he’s in Middle School and it still happens. The exchange would go, and still does go something like this:

Jace: “Grandma, I’m hungry!”

Grandma: “Well, go in the other room and get some pretzels.”

Jace: “I don’t like ’em.”

Grandma: “Yes you do. They’re the ones with cheese on them.”

Jace: “I don’t want that.”

Grandpa (Trying to get the situation under control): “Jace, if you’re hungry you’ll eat the pretzels.”

Jace: “I don’t want pretzels. I want chicken nuggets.”

Grandpa (desperately): “You must not be hungry if you won’t eat pretzels. Besides, you just got here.”

Jace: “Grandma, I’m hungry.”

Grandma: “Go get some pretzels while I make some chicken nuggets.”

After two, maybe three rounds of nuggets Jace announced, “I’m hungry! Can I have a Little Debbie?” (You know, “Little Debbie”, the snack cakes not the little girl down the lane. Jace likes the ones wrapped in clear cellophane. Oh, wait they’re all wrapped in clear cellophane!!! Jace likes them all.) Grandma says yes and Jace went to get his snack.

After all of this I surmised that his parents must not have fed the boy. But his Daddy was just like that when he was the same age. Jace hasn’t changed one bit. He’s just a lot taller and requires more nuggets and Little Debbie snacks to sate his appetite.

  These are the same kid. Just several years apart. 

And Story Zwei:

I teach First Grade. I used to teach Kindergarten. Before that I taught Pre-Kindergarten. Back in the Dark Ages I taught Fourth Grade. I think I like First Grade better. Everything you do in class they think it is wonderful. When I have to draw a picture, I swear I could draw a stick figure and it would get ooo’s and ahhh’s.

It never amazes me the things the children say. Sometime back in Kindergarten teaching days……..during a lesson we were all sitting around the rug. Then one of the girls gets up, walks over, and stands by me. I try to ignore her since I’m in the middle of explaining the difficult concept of “Patterns” for Math. From vast amounts of experience I that sometimes ignoring works and they will sit back down.

Not today. She stays right there next to me. I finally ask, “Watcha need (Insert name here)?” She replies, “My Mommy has a surprise for you at home. I can’t bring it until Friday!”

I think to myself, “Alrighty then. Mom has a surprise…..I’m not sure about this.”

However I astutely tell her, “Thank you, but don’t tell me anything about it because I know that you want it to be a surprise.” She’s happy and sits back down. About two hours later she walks up to me and wants to tell me something. Guess what she says? Yep! Same thing. “My Mommy and I got a surprise for you and it’s at home.”

Let’s face it. All kids are going to say what is on their mind. After all, kids are good that way.

Oh……I don’t recall the surprise other than this occurred near Christmas and it must have been a present

© 2015 Barry T Horst

Sometimes They Just Don’t Go As Planned by Barry T Horst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.