Monday, April 20, 2009

I really have a strange child...

My daughter, Sprout, in order to prevent me from eating the ears off her chocolate Easter Bunnies, has chomped all the ears off herself. Sort of the chocolate equivalent of "If I can't have them without worrying about them first, then NO ONE will!"

Problem is, I'm all talk when it comes to snarfing the ears off my kids' bunnies. Sally Forth I am not (read that comic for YEARS, and I just the other day got the double entendre in the name).

I'm more like Ted. And Sprout is becoming more and more like Hillary. We talk about subjects that are silly, while Wyfster (our Sally) sits in the background rolling her eyes. I'll give you an example.

I saw, for the first time the other day, a TV show on Spike TV called "Deadliest Warrior". The premise is simple. A group of 4 experts call in specialists in (mostly) archaic weapons and fighting styles. They take measurements of these weapons in use (speed of projectiles, force of a strike, penetration power, etc), add in information about the typical example of the specific warrior class (Samurai, Vikings, Apache warriors, etc) like height, weight, etc.

All this data is fed into a complex computer program that then takes the data, and runs 1000 simulations of a one-on-one combat between two of the warrior classes (Apache Warrior versus Roman Gladiator, for example), and after 1000 simulations, they indicate which warrior would emerge victorious (the Apache beat the Gladiator, BTW).

Sprout and I watched a couple of episodes, and actually debated on one (Viking versus Samurai). My daughter figured the Viking's larger frame and brute force would overcome the Samurai's slight build and speed. It was close, but the Samurai was victorious.

But the point is that my daughter formed an opinion regarding a hypothetical combat between two warriors who would never meet on the field of battle.

I'm not quite sure what this says about my 7-year-old daughter, or my skill (or lack thereof) as a parent. My daughter is sarcastic, yet respectful. Vicariously violent (through such things as this TV show, for instance), but gentle as any other little girl you can find. She's a fantastic student, yet suffers from a slight case of test anxiety, and worries if her scores are not perfect (though my wife and I are VERY careful to make sure to not put that kind of pressure on her).

I thought daughters weren't supposed to be such paradoxes until at least the pre-teen years.

What in the world did I do wrong (or right)? And what am I going to do when she gets to be totally unpredictable?

I can only hope that she remembers how much she likes spending time with daddy, and how much she likes talking with mommy, and her pre-teen and teen years are as abnormally easy as her infancy was.

Or else I could end up as more of a basket-case than I am already.

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