a peek inside the fishbowl

When I was about five my parents got me on tape describing - in all seriousness - what parents do all day. I announced that fathers work and mothers wash dishes. I was reminded of this recently while reading a post over at Mary Lynn’s blog.

Sidebar: I think interviewing your kids is a very fun way of preserving a sweet memory. A couple years ago when we were stuck in a hospital waiting room with Sarah’s split lip we came up with a few top ten lists to pass the time. It was actually quite revealing to discuss ten things we like to do as a family, ten things we loved about a family vacation and the ten things we missed about home, and our top ten favourite desserts.

But the interview I decided to undertake with the girls this weekend was a little different. With no prompting from me whatsoever, I asked the girls separately what topics they thought Mark and I were experts at. Here is what they said.

Sarah said that daddy is an expert at:

1. Editing videos
2. Barbecuing
3. Making apple crumble
4. Shovelling snow
5. Hugging
6. Science
7. Driving
8. Getting good things at the grocery store [ed. "good" includes cookies, chips, ice cream, and/or all of the above.]
9. Helping out on school projects
10. Jokes [ed: ??]

… and I am an expert at:

1. Arts and crafts
2. Blogging
3. Journalism
4. Cuddling and hugging
5. Cooking
6. Thinking of good ideas and places to go
7. Dog and pet care
8. Hula Hooping on the Wii [ed. okaaaaay]
9. Helping our community
10. Ponytails [ed: ??]

Emma said Mark is an expert at:

1. Birds
2. Using a video camera
3. Editing
4. Teaching
5. Directing
6. Managing money [ed: can you tell we've been talking a lot about his work lately?]
7. Parenting
8. Golf
9. Making people happy
10. Video games

… and that I am an expert at:

1. Parenting
2. Blogging
3. Journalism
4. Photography
5. Art
6. Swimming
7. Poetry and story writing
8. Making the family happy
9. Making up songs on the spot
10. Trying and learning new things

Isn’t that funny? It’s insightful in a really neat way. I’m quite pleased with their lists!

If you decide to do this with you kids (whether you blog about it or not) please come back and leave me a comment. I’d love to see what they come up with!

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