A Bedtime Chat

“Mother, this I know,” said the child, as his mother tucked him in his blue Astronaut sheets.

“What do you know, my child?” responded the mother with a beckoning grin.

“I know that the pipes that let out smoke from buildings are cloud makers,” he said.

The mother chuckled and brushed back his hair. “You silly boy. The smoke that comes from the factories is not clouds, but the exhaust from machines pumping away.”

“Oh. Well Mother, this I know,” retorted the child.

“What is it you know, my sweet?” smiled the mother.

“I know that there are tiny ants in stoplights that decide when to turn the color from red to green,” said the child proudly.

“Oh no, my dear. The color of the stoplights change from an electrical timer that senses when it is another cars turn to go.”

“Oh,” said the boy. “Well Mother, this I know.”

“What do you know, pumpkin?”

“I know that when we drive, the sun follows us around. I know this because I watch it and it is always right outside the window,” said the boy.

“No, no. The sun doesn’t follow you around, dear, it is merely so far away and so big that it only looks like it is following you.”

“Oh...Well Mother... This I know,” said the boy.

“Yes?” said the mother.

“I know that rain is really the sky crying,” the boy said.

“No, my child. Rain is when water gets stored up in the clouds so much that it overflows and falls down to the ground,” she said, and kissed him on the forehead.

The boy was very confused. “Huh...” he said with a frown. “I guess I don’t know much, do I mother?”

At this point the mother realized what she had done. “Oh no, my sweet,” she responded with a pat on his head. “You know so, so much.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you know how to tie your shoes!”

“Yeah, but so do all the kids in daycare,” he said.

“You know how to count to a hundred!”

“Everybody knows that...”

The mother sighed. “My dear boy, let me tell you this. There will be time when people tell you you’re wrong. They will tell you what’s right and try to set you straight. You will be told ‘no’ so many times in your life, that you will begin to think it’s the only answer. There will be times when you think you know nothing at all. But you, my child, will always stand up, look them in the eye, and say ‘That’s not how I see it!’ and go on with your day.”

The boy smiled and the mother smiled.

“So, when I tell you that the pipes are not cloud makers, that ants don’t turn stoplights from red to green, that the sun does not follow you around, and that the sky doesn’t cry when it rains, I want you to look up at me and say ‘That’s not how I see it’, okay?”

“Okay,” smiled the boy. “I love you, Mom.”

The mother kissed the boy again and re-tucked the cover underneath his chin. “I love you, too, son. More than you know,” she whispered as she made her way to the door.

“Mother?” he asked as the door creaked closed.

“Yes, my child?”

The boy grinned. “That’s not how I see it,” he said. “This I definitely know.”

The mother smiled and closed the door.