I have come to truly appreciate the fact that life is complicated when your name is Emma Carson. You must contend with a constantly whirring brain and the fact that parents and teachers are constantly (it seems) trying to "rule" you.
Emma's current teacher tells me that at school she is very quiet. To digress slightly, I remember her nursery teacher telling me that they were concerned about Emma's verbal development since she rarely spoke in the morning class for 2 and 3-year-olds. I was shocked since she never stopped talking at home. I even took video of her at home and showed it to her teacher, the rather severe Mrs. Walsh, who was doubly shocked to see Emma jabbering on about heaven only knows what.
It seems that things haven't changed all that much since Emma was two. She goes off to school and saves up all of her words; then as soon as we get in the car in the afternoon, they erupt and continue to flow until her eyes eventually close at night. Seriously, there needn't be anyone in the room with her in order for Emma to be carrying on a conversation. We often hear her chatting away in a room by herself. When she is not chatting, she is thinking. Thinking often leads to fretting about what may happen if A, B, C, and D were to first occur. It is all very complicated, I tell you. Sometimes in between thinking, chatting and fretting, Emma finds time to write, draw or create works of art with found objects and lots of Scotch tape. All of this takes a lot of energy and concentration. When we interrupt her repeatedly to ask her to do things like pick up her clothes, brush her teeth or finish her math homework, we often hear complaints about how she never has time to have any fun and how she is sick and tired of having everyone try to "rule" her. (Being "ruled," in case you were wondering, is NOT a desirable thing.)
Last night, Emma and I were taking a shower, and she asked me something like, "When the baby comes, is everyone just going to be interested in the baby when they come to see us, and will they not care about me anymore?" This question broke my heart, and I had to be honest that she might feel that way at first. I told her that everyone would be very interested in the baby at first simply because the baby was new and they had never met her before, but they would, of course, still be very interested in Emma. I tried to equate it to having a new kid in school. At first everyone wants to check out the new kid because he's new and different, but soon the new kid is just like all the other kids in class... or something like that. Then she grumbled, "I wish the baby was going to be a boy."
This morning over a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs and English muffins (which, by the way, are not called "English" over here....just muffins), Emma said to me, "Mom, I've thought about this as much as a girl can think about these things, and I am NEVER going to have a baby." I told her there was a good chance she might change her mind since she was only seven, but she assured me that a great deal of thought had been put into it and her mind was made up. I had to ask, "Why?" The response I got surprised me....
Emma has seen a few of those Discovery Home & Health shows which document women giving birth, and she was convinced that every woman's birth would be televised. She said, "I don't want everyone in my family to be watching me when I've got me feet up in those things having a baby!!" I assured her that a televised birth was not the norm, and that my births had been very private and lovely. So next she wanted to know about having to have stitches if there is tearing during the birth. Wow. She was starting to make me feel unsure about whether or not I ever wanted to have a baby! Sophie then chimed in, "I think they just use staples!" Dear God, just eat your eggs, kids, and let us never speak of this again! Only kidding, I assured Emma that stitches, if necessary, would be given under anesthesia, and that a staple gun would not be involved. Then we agreed she probably shouldn't worry about all of this at the age of seven, but this is Emma we are talking about, and 'not worrying' is easier said than done.
Now she is off at school saving up her words again...
"I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time and prevents arguments."
-Oscar Wilde
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