![images[6]](http://adiaryofamom.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/images6.jpg?w=551 "images[6]")
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On Sunday night, Katie announced that she’d like to do a report. Having no idea what she meant by a ‘report’, I enquired further. “You know, Mama,” she said. “Like where I learn all about something and then write it up and then present it to you and Daddy.”
I was intrigued. Whose kid decides five days into their summer that they’d like to do independent research? Apparently mine. Cool!
I asked if she’d like to do a book report – a logical question considering that this a kid who quite literally bumps into walls with her nose constantly buried in a book.
She scrunched her nose as she thought. “No, I tell you about my books all the time. I think I’d like to learn about an animal. I could look up all kinds of information – find out where it lives and what it eats and stuff.”
I was all for it. Had I suggested it, of course, it would have been a ghastly idea, but thankfully the idea was all hers.
“OK, love, so what animal would you like to study?” I asked.
“You pick, Mama.”
I flipped through my brain’s encyclopedia. What animal would she find interesting? I immediately honed in on beavers. They build dams! They work together! They mate for life! It seemed perfect.
“OK, love. How about studying beavers?” I asked.
“Sure, Mama. sounds great. I’ll go google beaver to see what I can find on the computer, OK?”
“Sure, honey, you go ahead.”
As she padded off to the office, I thought, “What an incredible kid. What great motivation. What great independence. What .. what .. what the flip is the matter with me?????????????????????????”
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!”
Need a minute? I can wait.
Yes, that’s right. I had just sent my eight year-old daughter to go google the word ‘beaver’.
OH
MY
GOD
She came back into the den and cocked her head to the side like a little golden retriever. “What’s the matter, Mama?” she asked, the picture of innocence.
“I, um, I , hmm, honey, I’d rather that you wait for me or Daddy to help you, OK? I think it’s best that you, um, er, don’t go googling right now.”
“Is that because there’s a grown-up meaning to the word too?” she asked.
Wait, what the heck happened to the picture of innocence from like TWO SECONDS AGO?
I was poised, graceful and calm. I offered a succinct, eloquent response. Except not. All I squeaked out was, “Huh?”
“Well, Mama, I’m just saying, by the way you reacted just now and that look on your face, I’m thinking there’s something inappropriate involved.”
Yes, she speaks that way.
I recovered from my previous shock and took advantage of the perfect teachable moment. Or not.
“How about polar bears?” I stammered. ”What do you say we do polar bears instead?”
Oy.
Bwahahahahahaha!! I think I may have just set a record for the amount of coffee I can snort through my nose without causing an electrical short to my husband’s computer! O.M.G.
Oh, yeah, and I’m very impressed that Katie wants to do reports on summer vacation. How about flowers?
Wait a minute…you don’t know the other meaning for “polar bears”?!
Just…for gods sake…no lemur.
You may want to shepard her towards cloud research. Clouds! Pretty. Harmless. I’m pretty sure she can google ‘nimbostratus’ without a problem. I think.
Fantastic!
Impressive that Katie picked up on your concern! She is so intuitive. And quick catch on your part!
um. you told your kid to google “beaver”
heh heh.
Well, at least you realized before she hit that return key!! And yes, I am very impressed that 5 days into summer vacation she’s anxious and excited for a little more learning… Gotta love that!!
OK, I Googled it too — knew the “inappropriate” definition, no really I did, but for research’ sake! And the first page came up entirely dam-building animals with flat tails. Katie would have been fine. But then you wouldn’t have had the marvellous story!
However, Rhemashope may wish to check out the Urban Dictionary definition, at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beaver
Heh.
ah – blog world at its finest .. people sharing ideas, learning from one another .. LOL
I’ve never fully recovered from going to Oregon State, where the mascot is a beaver!
Well, there’s no time like the present to check to make sure that “google moderate filter” actually works…. thanks for the GREAT story this morning! R
That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all morning. Thanks for the laugh.
Not sure, but I think this could have been titled, “Why Mama Drinks – Part III!!”
LOL! And WOW that she wants to research and report.
what? i don’t get it… ?
seriously.
off to google beavers.
Would you believe me if I told you we had a similar non-conversation about that same animal this weekend? O.M.G.
Dam the person who coined that inappropriate connotation!
I’d like to know why you had beavers on the brain in the first place. Wait. No I wouldn’t.
Polar bears are good.
BTW…Did I ever tell you Seth’s Build-a-bear cat’s name?
OMG! I just read through the comments. “Off to google beavers.”
And that’s how new euphemisms begin.
lol. Cute story.
well, gosh darn it. you learn something new every day. thanks jess and joymama, for that expose… i mean, the uncovering, um… of that information…
that is so funny! i’m so out of it, all i thought was, dam.
That was pretty funny. I laughed out loud. Haha….Hard to remember to be careful of everything these days.
Beaver sounded fine to me. I googled it myself. I went through 6 pages of beaver stuff; no problems for a kid
What I would have done is pick something challenging, like aardvark or tapir or even komodo dragon. I doubt if those critters have any pornographic uses
Can’t stop laughing!!! hahahahaha
You are too funny!!!!
Oh, my word. That so sounds like something I would have done.
By the way, I just discovered something about google that might help you – after I googled the seemingly innocuous word “woman” and got all kinds of lovely images.
Go to your google, and next to the search box click “preferences”. Then go to “safe-search filtering”. From there, you can rate what will appear in searches from G to X.
Our’s is on G!