There's no place like home

I was humming A Little Fall of Rain from Les Miz . The girls told me to sing it louder. I did. They wanted to know what it was about. I told them. I didn’t fluff over it too much. I told them the story of Eponine getting shot and dying and Marius being with her before she went to Heaven.

“Why did she get shot?” they asked.

I told them she was helping people who were fighting for something. They wanted to change things, to make them better for everyone. It was called the French Revolution.

“What’s the French Revolution?” they asked. Wow, how had I gotten myself into this?!

I ran through the basics of absolute monarchies, the feudal system, societal oppression, human selfishness, and used Veggie Tales, King George and the Ducky to illustrate. Ta da!

“Why?” they asked.

“What do you mean, why? I just explained it all. They needed to change things – to make things better.”

“But fighting isn’t a good way to change things, is it Mommy?” Emily countered.

Are you kidding me!? I was just recovering my history lesson on the French Revolution aimed at a 3 ½ year-old audience, and now we were delving into philosophy and human psychology! A deep breath.

“Well, do you want the little kids’ answer or the real answer?” I asked

They said they wanted the real answer. I guess it was a dumb question. My best answer was that fighting always had to be done very carefully because when you fight, people often get hurt – sometimes very badly. There are lots of ways to change things and often there are much better ways then fighting. Fighting is dangerous. But sometimes things are bad enough and the options are so limited that there is no other choice. Then you have to fight.

I’m sure they took it all in. They wanted to play Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz then. I was much relieved. I can handle being Glenda, the Good Witch of the North and Auntie Em simultaneously. There’s no place like home.