Sunday, December 17, 2006

Dirty Laundry

At my last book group people were talking about how staying informed can be a problem these days, since we have so little time to read and listening to NPR in the car anymore is a nightmare.

"The news is just...inappropriate," said one friend. I snorted.

"Jonah doesn't pay attention to what's on the radio. My biggest problem is he doesn't shut up for one second. I can't hear a thing."

A comment like this doesn't go unmarked by the gods of parenthood, who listen attentively for such phrases as "My child sleeps through the night!" and "I think he's almost potty trained!" Upon which, they laugh heartily and throw fireballs down on our heads.

Anyway, the other day I was innocently driving somewhere with my 4-year-old, I turned on NPR. Immediately came a report about the latest ruling in the Duke rape case.

"The judge ruled today that the victim was not raped, but she was penetrated with a male sex organ."

My hand flew to the radio knob. "Jesus," I whispered. "Jonah, want to sing "Jingle Bells"? I asked brightly. Not being much of a singer, he didn't answer. I waited for a question about male sex organs. He said nothing. A few minutes later, I turned the radio on again.

A reporter discussed whether Dick Cheney would testify in the Valerie Plame case, the one in which she was outed as a CIA agent, allegedly because her husband criticized the Bush administration for lying about weapons of mass destruction.

"What's a mass destruction?" Jonah piped up from the back seat. OK, I thought, this is easy.

"It's a big bomb," I said.

Now, he doesn't know from bombs. I felt pretty sure his mind would be sort of boggled and he'd move on to talking about whether the draw bridge was going to go up as we crossed the University Bridge.

"A bomb like a mole bomb? The kind that kills moles?"

This summer, my dad had taken Jonah on a mole patrol through his garden. I found out later this involved a lengthy catalogue of ways to kill moles. This made me wrinkle my nose, but since Jonah didn't seem disturbed I forgot about it.

But real bombs? I couldn't possibly explain to him what a bomb really is; it's too terrible. Or biological weapons? Unthinkable.

"Yes," I said. "Like that."

As we were parking the car, along came the story about fifty nurses in Bulgaria (Romania?) who injected infants in their care with the HIV virus.

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed, throwing myself on the radio knob.

"What? Why did you say oh my god?"

"There were- there were - uh, some bad nurses," I blubbered, getting out of the car.

"Like at Dr. Render's office?" he asked.

"Yes. I mean no! That nurse is a good nurse."

"What is a bad nurse?"

"Let's go in here and get a big cinnamon roll!"

"I like that!"

Jesus.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ok sorry but one more JT remark...I listen to him in the car and My kids are very into him too...I ofcourse freaked out when BOTH of them started singing the beginning of a song that starts with "Damn Girl, Damn Girl, Damn Girl....Does't sound so cute when a 2 and a 4 year old are singing it. Ok it did that one time but now we skip it cause I got introuble from Charlie. They are way to perceptive. Lily the other day overheard me talking about a story that happened a long time ago right after Charlie and I were married, she was listening very carefully, she came up to daddy and said, "daddy, I still love you eventhough some crazy lady sat on your lap and mom kicked her" (it's true but she wasn't crazy ahe was drunk)point is I now have to become one of those moms that are uncool to her kids:(