What I know for sure

(Bloggers note: How have I not done one of these before? Oprah “writes” a monthly column in her magazine called ‘What I know for sure” where she dispenses advice about what she is sure of in life. It’s all very narcissistic if you think about it, because can we ever know anything for sure? But then again, it’s Oprah and thus we should probably trust that she knows, because aren’t we screwed if she doesn’t. Anyways, I thought this was an appropriate title for this blog entry because I do know this for sure… right now).

Last week I started teaching English at a nursery. That’s right, I mold the minds of children, toddlers really, if that even. They’re all generally under the age of 2 and until today, all girls. I use the term “teach English” very loosely, because I basically just repeat key words in English after the teacher says them in Italian, for example if we’re painting with white paint, I say “white.” Tuesday we played with rice, so I repeated rice a million times. Last Thursday I sang Mary Had A Little Lamb about 100 times. This week, one of them finally repeated after me when I said cat. This was a breakthrough, although when I asked her again what the picture was, she couldn’t remember cat.

They are adorable, I do know this for sure. At least for the first 15 minutes, when we’re playing with paints or wool or whatever craft project that has been set out for them. But they have short attention spans, just like me. So they get bored and whinny and cry for their parents as lunch and nap time looms. By the time I’m leaving they’re all crying or screaming and I’m running for the exit.

By the way, I spend an hour with them.

So, what I know for sure (aside from the before mentioned adorableness)… my mom is not getting grandchildren from her daughter anytime soon. Aside from the fact that I can’t afford to make one life happen right now- let alone two- babies aren’t so much my thing right now. Screaming, crying, whinning- it’s not cool. Even though they are kind of fun for 15 minutes and there are 2 of them who are pretty smart for being just under two and another one who squeals in delight when I get there, I figure that fifteen minutes of cuteness isn’t enough to sell me on them yet.

And that is what I know for sure.