So Miss M hangs around at school with a few other girls whose imaginations have been known to run away with them. Like the time they planned an entire production of Sleeping Beauty during the recess periods (this took months) and were literally going to mount it in the park before another mom and I kind of put the kibosh on the whole thing.
Sample conversation:
Me: Where are you going to put on Sleeping Beauty?
Miss M: In the park across from the school?
Me: When are you planning to do this?
Her: [specific date and time]
Me: Yeah, I don’t think so.
Her: But I made invitations! We’re inviting the whole school! We’re going to have refreshments!
Me: faint Uh. You know, you can’t have things like that in the park without a permit. You have to get permission from City Hall. (About 15% true, by the way.)
Her: Ok, then H (the most well-spoken of the 7 year olds, so excellent choice) will go to City Hall and get permission.
Me: How is H planning to get there?
Her: She’ll walk.
Me: It’s way too far for her to walk there by herself.
Her: Ok, then she’ll take a bus.
Me: *head explodes*
Anyway. Sleeping Beauty was so last year. At a certain point, Miss M came home and told me that the aforementioned H was going on a trip to New Zealand and Japan. I promptly forgot about it, figuring that talk among second graders is just that. Sort of like the time when Miss M told me that her friend from South Africa was born in China.
But it turned out that H really was going to New Zealand for a month, with her parents and brothers. With a stopover in Japan (this is was really caught Miss M’s fancy–since she read a book set there she is hot for all things Japanese…except the food, of course).
And it also turned out that another mom had the exact same reaction that I did to this news about New Zealand, namely four little girls who sit and plot and make stuff up all the time had probably crafted some harmless fantasy universe where they travel all around the world.
See? It’s not just me.
(I am, however, insanely jealous of the trip to New Zealand. Although perhaps not the getting there with three kids under 8. It’s really far!)
Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s imagined and what is actually true when you hear stuff like that
I have a daughter that would fit right in with that group. She’s always planning productions or events and sending out invitations. Her planning can be elaborate and take months too, usually without consulting me as to whether or not said plans are either practical or will work with our schedule etc.
When I was in kindergarten my very-pregnant mother carefully explained to me that my best friend might be feeling a little jealous and as a result had invented the story that she’s going to be a big sister, too. Mom told me that it might hurt my friend’s feelings if I called her on it, so we sort of played along. Imagine the shock of BOTH mothers when they met on the labor/delivery floor of the hospital and put two and two together. Turns out my friend’s mother had been telling her daughter the same thing. Our baby sisters were born the same day.