Parents and Children

[ciroccoj]

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No big surprise here. Although this entry is pretty much G-rated ;)

***

I was getting rid of some newpapers and found a story on the first Christmas baby born in Ottawa this year. It's such a typically Ottawan story. She was born to a Iraqi refugee couple, who had been planning on calling her Asna or Yasmeen, but when they found out she was the first baby born on Christmas Day, they named her Mariam, the Iraqi word for Mary.

So there you go. Ottawa's first Christmas baby of 2003 was Mariam Abdallah, born to Muslim parents from Iraq, who named her in honour of the mother of Christ.

I'm so glad I'm raising my kids here. I know it's not perfect, and there are downsides to being a city composed of 20% immigrants. Trying to deal with so many ethnic, religious and linguistic groups is not always easy. There are some French-English problems, some hostility towards Somalians, etc etc. People are people, and tolerance doesn't always come naturally. But I think that on the whole Ottawans do a pretty good job of getting along and respecting each other. And I want my kids to grow up seeing that, as I did.

***

On the topic of multiculturalism, I found out about a rather sweet Quebecois custom that I'd never heard of before. Apparently it's traditional in many Quebec or Franco-Ontarian homes for children to come to their parents on New Year's Day and ask to be blessed. Guy's daughter Guylaine still comes to him every New Year's Day to be blessed, even though I think she's in her mid-forties.

Speaking of Guylaine, we had the regular linguistic mishmash at my mother's house today. I went to visit and found Guylaine and her husband Sylvain there. Guy, Guylaine and Sylvain speak French, which we all understand perfectly well, but which my mother and I don't always speak easily. My mom and I speak in Spanish when it's about a topic that wouldn't interest anybody else. And all of us except Sylvain slip into English when something doesn't come through properly in French, or French when the English wasn't understood. I'd love to tape us all and transcribe a dinner conversation.

***

Talked to Chris on the phone. I think we're slowly getting back after the fight the other day. We both agreed that we'll have to go on a date when they all come back - we haven't had much time to connect lately, and that's not good in the best of times. This is hardly the best of times.

Anyway, he said the boys have been commenting that they really miss me, and wish I had come with them. I'm a little surprised that Daniel would say that - he's very independent, and while he enjoys spending time with me, he doesn't seem to need to. In regular life, if he doesn't see much of me for a few days (what with my classes, his school, his friends, Beavers, and other assorted events) he doesn't seem to notice. I really thought that while Justin might have a hard time at first, Daniel would basically say "Mama who?"

Apparently not. Chris said that one of them asked for a "story about Mama" the other day, and they decided that was a good thing to do when they missed me. Then Chris said that when Justin asked for a Mama story today, Daniel offered to tell one. "Had almost nothing to do with you, of course - it started with you battling some evil alien, and by the end you weren't anywhere in the story". I laughed, because I can so see Daniel doing that. His stories are a lot like an impromptu round robin - start with one plot, veer off wildly at random intervals, include a lot of bizarre explosions and aliens, and end up somehow starring Buzz Lightyear, Jimmy Neutron, or an elf.

***

I found this while going through old lj entries that I never got around to finishing. This one had been lying around since September. So I finished it.

Chris and I were talking about whether the Federal Alliance party would be able to push a resolution through Parliament declaring marriage to be only between a man and a woman (the resolution failed, BTW - narrowly). Daniel wanted to know what we were talking about. So we started to explain. At one point Chris was trying to get across the idea of leadership, and how leaders have to remember they don't just represent the people who elected them. So he says, "Let's pretend we lived in a completely, completely different universe, and Daddy was the ruler of this house. And I'm the ruler because you voted for me, and Justin voted for me, and I voted for me, but Mama voted for Mama. And then I made a rule that Mama could never have dessert again. Would that be fair?"

"No," said Daniel.

"Why not?"

"Because you're supposed to represent everybody."

I thought, our six-year old gets it... why don't the members of the Alliance?

Then Daniel wanted to know what elections were like. For example, what if he and Justin elected themselves? So he started a mock-election.

"I vote for me!" said Daniel.

"I vote for Mama!" said Chris.

"I vote for Luli! (my mother)" I said.

"We have a three-way tie!" Daniel said.

"That means Justin is the swing vote," Chris said. "We all have to court his vote."

We all looked at Justin.

"I'm not paying attention to you. I'm eating," said Justin.

Eventually we got him in on the game. I promised him no naps, Chris promised him something else (I think trips to Cosmic Adventures) and Daniel promised him candy all the time.

Guess who won his swing vote :) :) :)