What Have I Done?
I think I have created a monster. My four-year-old son is obsessed with baseball. He reads the sports page religiously every morning, and has taught himself to read all thirty team names and nicknames. He knows the difference between the NL and the AL. He knows who the Nats are competing with for the playoffs, so he'll say "Dad! Dad! This is good! Brewers 6, Astros 4!" In the car on Sunday with XM, he was requesting which games to listen to; he had memorized the schedule for the day. He likes the Nats first, but also the Brewers, Rockies, and Tigers. He doesn't like being a frontrunner.
But today, he surpassed even all this. I came home and told him the Nats/Mets score. "Woo hoo!", he said, "That's three in a row against the Mets. The Mets aren't very good. Who do the Nats play tomorrow?" I told him the San Diego Padres. "Is that game on late?" he asked. "Yes, at 10 o'clock" I said. He frowned, "So that will be an x-late game in the paper, huh? Today, all the teams in the NL West had an x next to their names." I didn't know what to say.
posted by DM @ 9:23 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Welcome to the Borg, young man. Resistance is futile.
[Nice job, Dad - get 'em while they're young!]
Is the training on ERV scoring next?
You should've said:
"Don't worry, son. Daddy will use his magic powers to find out the scores and will write them in the newspaper next to the "x"s."
Anonymous, from your comment I take it you do not have children. If had done what you say, mine, who are the shrewdest, toughest negotiators I've faced, would calmly create and enforce the expectation that Dad's "magic powers" be summoned in any instant they wish. This is why parents are often heard saying, "It's just broken, that's all."
DMCj, the scary part is that I can take next to no credit. He started asking these questions on his own. I only answered them.
Brian, you have identified a potential labor pool for ERV scoring, which as everyone knows, is currently suffering a labor shortage. But he has a way to go yet, and so do I in being able to teach him. For example, he asked why the pitchers for each game have a W-L under their name. I explained it, and I think he got it. The he asked what the "Team W-L" numbers meant. I couldn't begin to explain that distinction to him. Maybe by the time he's ready, we'll have ditched W/L as a stat.
"Anonymous, from your comment I take it you do not have children. If had done what you say, mine, who are the shrewdest, toughest negotiators I've faced, would calmly create and enforce the expectation that Dad's "magic powers" be summoned in any instant they wish. This is why parents are often heard saying, "It's just broken, that's all.""
I actually ahve kids, but mine are young enough that they would fall for that. If your son is that shrewd, you could go the honest route and tell him you will check the socres on the Internet and tell him what they are so that he doesn't have to wait another day for the "X" to be filled in!
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