Possible career

Oftentimes, like most parents, when we are walking through a store and Tahlia sees something that she decides she must have, we let her know that we just don’t have the money. Mommy and I discussed this strategy when we realized that Tahlia was approaching the age when, on a whim, she would want things. We realized that simply stating that it wasn’t in the budget, we hadn’t planned for it, or that we just didn’t have the money for what ever it was that she wanted was a good idea. Sometimes, after we give our lack-of-monetary reason, Tahlia will state that she wants it anyway. We repeat ourselves, and she is usually fine.

Tonight, however, we were given some insight into how it is really affecting her.

Asher and I were in Mommy’s and my bedroom preparing for bed. I had already wrangled a diaper on him and squeezed him into his pj’s. I just had started reading a Winnie the Pooh book to him when a naked Tahlia dashed into the room and started to launch herself onto the bed.

“Daddy, I hear the book too?”

“Sure Tahlia, come on up.” Now, I was sitting with a squirming baby who was trying to shove Winnie the Pooh into his mouth and a naked two year old who just wanted to kiss her baby brother.

Mommy came into the room and grabbed Asher. Tahlia began jumping on the bed. A brief interlude of screaming baby, jumping girl and quiet conversation occurred.

Tahlia decided that she was done jumping on the bed and began squirming over to my side to slide off.

We asked Tahlia who was going to put her down for the night, which, of course, was a non-question – the answer being Mommy. I told Tahlia that I was going to have to go back to work soon and maybe she should allow me to put her to bed.

“Why Daddy goes back to work?”

“Because I have to make some money.” I wish I could have said something about loving my job, but I try not to lie to my daughter, and right now, I simple don’t love my job.

She looked deeply at me and slid completely off of the bed. For a moment, she disappeared, then her head poped up and she said, “I’m off to work.”

We watched as her little naked bum sprinted out of the room; in her hand, a catalog was visible.

I say good night to Asher and Mommy, and I head after Tah.

I find her in the other bathroom.

“Daddy, I’m at work.”

I smile and head back to tell Mommy that our little girl is at work.

I returned to find Tahlia coming out of the bathroom.

“Tahlia, are you working?”

She smiled and said yes.

“What do you do?”

She walked quickly back to Mommy’s and my room and said, “I go in here and get a magazine and I come out here and go in here,” she starts heading back into the dark bathroom, “and I read the magazine.”

I look at her, naked, standing in a pitch-black bathroom with a toy catalog, and say, “Is your job reading magazines.”

She smiles at me incredulously, “Yeah.”

I’m pretty sure this all stems from the idea that Daddy works to make money, and she hopes to contribute to the family coffers. Or, maybe she is hoping one day to be an editor, but, in reality, I would love to have the job of reading toy catalogs. I wonder how much it pays.