Reasonable Woman

Well, Erik is in the home stretch of the 5th grade. Yes, that last blissful year of elementary school. Because there are two new 5th grade teachers this year (for the first time in 25 years) they are trying to keep up a few traditions started by the previous administrations. Some of those traditions are the egg drop (a design competition in which your creation containing an egg is dropped from the top of the school), the life time line, the Blast from the Past (where they dress up as a character from history and answer questions about the famous person's life), a family tree, and a biography. I know, it sounds like they are getting ready to die...

Anyway, the biography is supposed to be 5-7 paragraphs, well thought out, about your life. Have you ever attempted to get an 11 year old boy to write a significant essay? I think when Emily did her biography it was around 17 pages. Well, finding teeth in my chickens is easier than getting Erik to write more than "I was born, I live, I like to play the Wii." We have been slowly working on this essay for about 5 days, he writes a few things, I make marks on it in red, and try to pose questions that should lead to more information. Last night I left Scott to work on the final draft because the gray hair was really coming through and I definitely needed some hair dresser attention. When I got home, Scott cheerfully told me "it's all done, and you really should read it."

The fourth paragraph was supposed to be about things Erik wanted to do in the future. What did he want to be? How many children? Where did he want to live? etc. It was reading pretty good until I saw a sentence that hadn't been there before:

"I want my wife to be a reasonable woman, like my mom, who likes to have fun."

Some may be insulted, but I take this as the highest of compliments. He doesn't even have to get me anything for Mother's Day. Oh yeah, and my new motto? "You know...I'm a reasonable woman."