Firing questions at the Firemen

My friends had organized a tour of the neighborhood fire station for their kid’s birthday party. The fire men explained the various operations of the fire engine, the tools & equipments they use incase of an emergency. I was amazed at how smart the kids were in asking questions.
The fireman took out a long heavy hammer and axe out of the fire truck. Here is a funny conversation between the fireman and one of the smart kids:

Fireman: We use these tools to pry open locked doors incase of an emergency.
Kid: If you break open the doors then do you close them after you put off the fire.
Fireman: No, we don’t do it. The house owners have to fix it themselves.
Kid: If you leave it open then skunks may enter our house.
Fireman: mm… yeah!
Kid: Oh! I know what you should do. If you are there to put off fire in our house when we are not in home, you should call us immediately. That way we can bring the keys to open the door. Then you don’t have to break our doors.
Fireman: Good idea…

Boys vs. Girls

We have some rose plants in the front of our house. Every morning I step out of the house and pick a rose. My son (3 years old) watched me do this for a few days and then he started getting involved with the process. He likes to boss around all the time, so gradually he started suggesting and then ordering me which flower I should pick. He would point at the tiny bud rose one day and then at the big dried up rose the next day. But he never picked the one I liked. Nevertheless I wanted to encourage his interest and so tried to give some hints to pick the right flower. I told him to look for roses that just started to bloom with the petals still intact but not so closed. I also told him to try to find the closest match to my dress color. I reminded him these points everyday. But everyday he picked a big, dry flower and argued endlessly that it was prettiest of all.

One day I was tired of arguing with him. So I told him that we’ll take two – one of his choice and one of mine. Roses are pretty and they smell good too. I asked him to give it to me because I wanted to smell it. He immediately turned around to show his diaper to me. It was my mistake!! I smell his diaper to judge if he has to be changed.

We reached his school. He handed the flowers to me and said bye-bye. Another little girl in his class was curiously looking at the roses in my hand. I gave the two roses to her and asked her to take the one she liked. Without any hesitation she took the one that I chose earlier. She is younger than my son and had just started to speak few words. She didn’t have to be taught to identify the pretty flower.

I just realized that Boys are boys no matter what we teach or train them.