Archive for June, 2009
Our Problem With Ninjas
Warning: If you are easily offended perhaps it would be best if you did not read this post. It is not meant to offend and I don’t need a bunch aggravating emails.
Anyone who has kids knows how they can come up with the craziest of conclusions from stuff they have seen or heard. It doesn’t seem to make any sense at the time, but after you think about it for a little bit, it makes perfect sense from their perspective. Take my five-year-old as an example:
The other night we are eating dinner, making plans for how the eight-year-old and five-year-old plan to waste their summer. My wife and I were discussing how we can integrate an exercise program into our daily routine. We used to be members of a gym, but we gave up the membership when my wife was pregnant and I was too damn lazy to go. So we sat there talking about the merits of joining the gym again versus the amount of time we have to go. Part of the discussion revolved around whether our 18-month-old is old enough to be left with the childcare center at the gym without flipping out. We weren’t sure that would work out so well since she seems pretty attached to my wife.
We actually liked the child care center at our gym. There were several nice care-givers there, including one we had babysit for us once. She was very young, in high school still, and she was from Kenya. She seem to be genuine in her interest in kids. However, the five-year-old seemed to have a very concerned look on his face. After a few minutes my wife finally asked him what was wrong.
“Are you going to the gym?” he asked.
“Probably not this year,” she answered.
Relief came across his face. He went back to eating.
“Why did you want to know,” she pressed him.
“Well,” he said, “I don’t want to have to go in with the Ninjas any more.”
We look at each other. I am clueless.
“What ninjas?” my wife asks.
“THERE WERE NINJAS THERE!” he said. “Didn’t you see them?”
Slowly it dawns on my wife. She explains it to me.
“The caregiver there was from Kenya. She is Muslim. She had to wear the Hijab on her face,” she explained.
So there I was, explaining to him that Muslims were not Ninjas. After a while he seemed convinced.
I’m just glad he told us before he waltzed in there and asked her if she was a Ninja. Talk about hell breaking loose.
