Practicing the Parent Poker-Face

Twice tonight I had to keep a straight from something each of the boys said. The first happened while I was making dinner. Meagan decided she wanted to watch Dora, so she turned the TV on. The TV, however, was set to DVD input, so when she turned it on, the screen was black. Sebastian came barrelling into the kitchen, proclaiming the world's largest emergency ever. "Mom!! I think there's an emergency! Meagan turned the TV on, and it was all black! I think the satellite fell off of the roof!! You have to go check!" A smile started to sneak out, but I held it back, and calmly told him it I could fix it in a minute.

That was a funny moment...But wait....it gets better. Although the setting and the background story are quite sad, my friend Kim and I actually had quite a good belly-laugh from this instant Isaac classic...

There is a family in our community with a little boy who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Sadly, Sunday the little boy passed away. The viewing was tonight, and Kim and I went together to pay our respects. Well, Lucas took Sebastian to wrestling practice tonight, which meant Isaac and Meagan had to go with me to the viewing. Before we left, I prepared them for what they would see. I reminded them of a family funeral we had gone to not long ago, and told Isaac it would be kind of like that, except it was a little boy who had died. He seemed to understand, or so I thought. While Kim and I spoke with the parents, Isaac and Meagan sat off to the side and colored. When it was time to go, I told the kids how well they had done - they were very well-behaved the whole time - and we went out into the entryway to get our coats. As we were putting our coats on, I could tell Isaac was thinking something over that he wanted to say. I asked him if everything was okay. He stopped and looked at me and said (with the most mystified tone of voice and confused look on his face), "But Mom....we didn't even see anybody die?" NOT what I was expecting to hear. I bit the inside of my cheek, and said quietly, "Let's talk about it in the van." Then we left...as quickly as possible (I was praying the whole time he wouldn't say anything else about it to where someone might overhear him). I glanced at Kim, and she looked like she too was trying to keep from laughing. We made it to the van and almost out of the parking lot before we both busted up laughing. The poor little guy obviously didn't understand quite what we were doing at the funeral home after all, and I think he was just plain confused. I know it was a sad evening, but leave it to my kids to bring some comic relief.