Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

I must start out by saying that my "embarrassment meter" is bit off. In retrospect I'm pretty sure I was a HUGE nerd during my school years. But I didn't know I was a nerd so I didn't care.

See, I don't know when I should be embarrassed. I act with reckless abandon and only later do I think that perhaps my actions were embarrassing.

I tell you this because apparently my oldest son's embarrassment meter works quite well at the ripe old age of 5 and I am trying to figure out how to back myself off a bit so as not to mortify him before he is a teenager.

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday.

You may recall that a few years back my kids dressed as Dr. Seuss characters for Halloween.



So this morning I dug out the Thing 1 Thing 2 logos. In my mind it was appropriate to wear to school. It is Dr. Seuss's birthday after all.

This may be a good time to mention that a week or so ago they learned about Pirates in preschool and Zoey went all decked out in her best Pirate garb. And, in my mind, that was totally normal, acceptable behavior.



I convinced Adam to wear a red sweater to school and just before it was time to walk out the door I safety pinned the Thing 1 logo to both his front and back. I, too, was wearing a red shirt and I told him I was coming to his class later and I would come as Thing 2.

He said "When are you coming?"

I told him I would come after his study buddies. (The 5th graders come in each Tuesday to read with the kindergarten students."

Upon hearing I wasn't coming in my Thing 2 attire until after he met with his study buddies he suddenly became very agitated.

"I want to take this off, mom."

I couldn't understand his reaction but he was nearly in tears. I tried to explain that he could simply take his sweater off if he wanted (he was wearing a t-shirt beneath) but this was NOT good enough. He wanted Thing 1 off, and he wanted it off NOW.

I complied and started to unpin the Thing 1 logo. As I was taking the one off his back he said "Did you want me to wear it?"

I told him that I thought it would be fun but it was no big deal. At that he started to cry even harder. "I want to do what you want me to do!!!!"

By now we were running late so I once again reiterated that it really wasn't a big deal and we just needed to go. I told him it was fine if he didn't want to go to school as Thing 1 and that I wasn't disappointed. REALLY it was fine.

As we walked to school he walked behind me the entire time. I kept trying to get him to walk beside me but he refused. I finally realized it was because I had told him at home that he needed to stop crying or everybody would see his red eyes and now he was embarrassed about that!

Moms! They just don't get it!

I would like to add that Zoey attended preschool today as Thing 2 and didn't seem the least bit scarred by it. Apparently her "embarrassment meter" is more in line with mine.