I love my bongos more than I love you

Monday, Apr 13^th 2009

By Jean Yih Kingston

“He’s so cute.”

People often tell me this about our six year-old son. It’s not that I don’t think this myself, I mean, I’m his mom, so naturally I get a kick out of him and think he’s cute to boot. It’s just that whenever people say this about William, I always think, they have no idea what's going on behind the scenes.

William’s a spitfire – energetic, charismatic and he loves, loves, loves to push the limits. As the youngest of four children he wants to keep up. He’s competitive and willful and he’s successfully turned me gray.

Even so, with all the older influences in the house, he maintains a certain innocence at six I wish I could bottle up. He says things that stick with us. Recently he proudly announced, “I know lots of swears. I know the “h” word… that’s hate. I also know the “s” word…that’s stupid,” and I just had to laugh.

The combination of his strong emotions and his kindergarten vocabulary causes him to say precious and memorable things, even if there are glimmers of evil behind them.

Just the other day, he was infuriated at his older brother.

“I love my little pillow (his favorite pint-sized pillow he sleeps with each night) more than I love you.”

He then scoured his room for something else….something much less important to him than his little pillow, and added with fire in his eyes, “I even love my bongos more than I love you.”

So, recently John and I have taken to saying, “I even love my bongos more than I love you,” and somehow, no matter how angry we might be at each other, that line seems to make things better.

Jean Yih Kingston

Jean Kingston, who co-founded SixSeeds, spends many of her waking hours in her SUV hauling carloads of children to various and sundry playing fields across the state of Massachusetts. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

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