Birds and bees are different species

“Ask your mom, ask her about the birds and the bees,” I said.

“They’re different species!” my nephew said.

I returned to tackling my Rocket Double burger. A few seconds later, I noticed he’s still staring, bewlidered at the fact that I mentioned birds and bees in one sentence.

“I don’t know, that’s what I heard others say to their kids. ‘The birds, and the bees!’ Don’t look at me, I didn’t make it up,” I said, dipping some fries in ketchup.

“Bulls and cows, roosters and hens, but birds and bees?” he said.

Haitham is eleven. He’s into comics, computers, consoles, Harry Potter and recently – classic video games like Pacman. He also loves a good wrestling match on television and wants to become President, as in President of the US one day. Nevermind the constitution, “they’ll change things,” he says. If kids are the future, then we better start listening to them.

With work and other time constraints, I hadn’t seen Haitham in a while. So I made the time to take him to Johnny Rockets for dinner tonight. We both like a good chocolate malt and wouldn’t mind the bright, happy diner atmosphere.

It’s always great to connect with children. Their questions are fun and they have the most direct responses usually. No spin-doctoring with them. Cut the BS and go straight to the chase. You either make sense to them or you don’t. There’s no line of mediation. There’s only a line of understanding with them.

They put you on the spot and make you think, deliberate and give them your best possible answer or simply tell them, “I don’t know. Ask your mom.”

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