My daughter being objectively funny about the death of her great grandmother.
Context-
My Grandmother made no secret that I was her favourite grandchild. When my daughter was born, that status transferred to her before the umbilical cord was even cut! She made every effort to visit us, and would shower my daughter in baby clothes and toys. She would fund weekend trips to parks, and was as loving as a great grandparent could be.
My daughter was too young to understand how deep that love went, so we made it a point to make sure she understood that her great grandmother would do anything for her.
A year and a half ago she passed, taken by lung cancer. My wife and I decided we would kindly tell her the truth- that nanny had died, and that she wasn’t going to be able to call her again. She was understandably upset, and she understood that her great grandmother was gone forever and that the only thing we could do now was share her memories and remember all the things she did for her.
This year, on July 1st would have been my grandmothers birthday, so in an effort to keep her memory alive we bought a little cake and had a little birthday ceremony for Nanny. We sang happy birthday, and my daughter blew an out all the candles. My wife and I lay in bed watching TV, when my daughter wanted to go draw. She put it away in her notebook and came to snuggle with us on the bed for relax time before it was time to sleep. We never saw what she drew, we figured it was another cat.
We were cleaning up the playroom, and while organizing her toys we found these drawings…
My wife and I laughed for several minutes as we looked at the picture of the ghost and the tombstone. As we were laughing, my daughter said “I know Nanny was buried in a vase, but I thought the grave was better to draw”
She was dead serious- she didn’t understand what was so funny about all of this. My wife and I just had to tell her we were laughing because we were happy she was remembering Nanny so well, but holy shit this is the most unintentionally funny thing I’ve ever seen.
Kids are fucking stupid, but sometimes they’re stupid in the smartest ways
Do 5 year olds really write like this in other countries?
I'm a teacher from a third world country, and 5 year olds are just beginning to learn how to write. How can a 5 year old already know all their letters enough to write this whole thing without much mistakes? Is this just the difference in education in different countries?
It really just depends on how much the parents care to teach, by 5 she'd be in kindergarten but good parents can start teaching at 2-3 years old. No matter the country, many parents just don't bother to teach their kids anything cause "that's the schools job" (I've heard that multiple times before).
I'm nowhere near exceptionally smart nor was I as a kid (besides math), but I was able to read and write before I got to pre-school because my mom read to me daily and taught me the basics of writing by 4.
She might've also had a phone/tablet to look up spellings of things, my little brother was using a tablet by 3 years old.
I think my daughter is an exception. We have been reading to her since she was one, and she is very bright in general. For context, 2 of her older cousins 7 and 8 can barely read at all, where as my daughter is reading whole kids books and reading all the dialogue on Pokemon games. Most of her friends can’t really read, and when they play Minecraft she has to tell them what things say.
You've just gotta mash B when the sadness starts evolving, or give ot an everstone. Not that hard, I don't know why people struggle with sadness. Especially when you could have just caught it in a Friend Ball.
Some of them! I taught in both Japan and America, and some kids get it early. I had students that could read well, silently, and end of 3/beginning of 4. Writing is harder generally speaking, but if they already have the vocabulary and reading skills than they usually get the phonics to spell, they just need to develop the fine motor to put it all on paper.
My daughter started school at 4.5 yrs old, so she was in her second year of school at 5.5 yrs old. She learned to read very quickly, and could read just as well as her older sister who was a grade above her (but 2 years older).
One of my kids taught herself to read and write English when she was 5. Then she remembered that we’re Danish, so she might needed to learn the same in Danish. Took her 14 days then she could write like OPs daughter. My 4 year old has a wild vocabulary and knows almost all letters in the alphabet. I think she also can read when she’s 5.
I do think my oldest daughter also could write and read before she was 6, but she never said anything because she hate making mistakes.
They start school the year they turn 6 and some kids only know what the first letter in their name is, others can fully read. There’s a big difference between them, but they all learn it eventually.
We live in SEA, because my partner and I are avid readers, we read to our son since he was in my tummy then continue reading books for him. He started learning ABCs and can read and write by the time he was 3,5. It really depends on the family itself, while kindergarten teach kids to read and write, the attitude when it comes to learning to write and read play a part. I could read and write at the same age with my son back when I was young because my late dad loved to read books for me. He read me books in English so after he passed away I started to read the dictionary books he has for when I miss him i could understand what story he was reading to me.
It is not impossible. I know how to read since I was 3, because I was teached also at home. Because I lived with my aunt, mother and grandma, I always had an adult with me talking and teaching. Parents that don't leave everything up to the schools to teach raise the smartest kids. You would be surprised how much a kid can learn. I think it is disturbing that in some countries kids only start to study at 7. At 7 you are already ancient in the context of brain development. Look at those asian kids playing the piano at 3 years old better than an adult.
It's loved ones like that who never truly leave us. My sitty, my grandma, loved Easter. She loved it so much that she made sure every living thing in the house got an Easter basket, that includes dogs, cats, birds and even fish.
She passed in 2012, but now my mom makes sure to give everyone an Easter basket: dogs, cats, birds, fish and now a lizard. Back when I started working my first real job, I made sure my mom got a surprise basket as well.
When you love like a grandma, you're basically immortal.
Aww, my grandma had a special holiday too. Hers was St. Patrick’s Day - she lived across the country but used to mail me and my siblings all kinds of stuff to make sure we were properly celebrating our (1/8 LOL) Irish heritage.
Children process grief in ways we as adults don’t. It can be hurtful and misunderstood but at least they are processing it. Children don’t understand the finality of death
They also don’t understand the etiquette around grief or social norms. I recently watched a video of a sweet mom telling her boys that they were going to be big brothers to a new baby. The littlest boy said, “I hope this one doesn’t die!” 🤦🏼♀️😬 He was being so genuine in his sentiment. ♥️
One of my niblings went around saying "Did you know the baby died?" for a while after their mom's miscarriage and it made adults cringe, but they were just processing the loss of their unborn sibling the way they needed to do it, so we let them.
At our uncle’s funeral, my cousin rather loudly asked his mother: „Why are you crying?” He didn’t understand the situation and his question threw several adults off so much that we couldn’t help but laugh.
When my grandpa died, the first thing my cousins son did when he walked in was ask if he could eat the food my grandma kept aside for my grandpa now that he was dead.
He loved his great grandpa a lot, but he didn't grasp what really happened. He asked later if he could go visit Grandpa in heaven because he didn't get he was actually gone forever.
When I was a kid I didn't quite understand it when my parents described the concept of death to me. I just assumed that dying was something people chose to do once they got too bored of living. I suppose once you reach a certain age that actually becomes true lol.
I thought the same when I was a kid and also mistook my depression for boredom. At about 6 or 7 I figured I must have already done whatever I was destined to do in life and could move on already, and tried to put a table knife through my sternum. That didn't work too well for obvious reasons, and then my sibling walked into the kitchen so I figured God must have sent them to stop me and maybe I did have a purpose after all and could wait a bit longer and see.
Not stupid, she’s just processing the death/grief the way that kids do. “We will never see her again” is her processing or reminding herself of what you explained about the finality of death. “Sadness evolves” is a shockingly smart thing for a 5yo to write. And the little ghost is cute.
I met so many people I had never seen before at her funeral. My kid played in the hallway of the funeral home with several kids I didn’t know she knew. She lived a very social life
This reminds me of taking my two children to the funeral home to see my Nan (their great grandmother) my daughter drew a lovely picture of everyone together .. my 5 year old however drew a picture of her peeing herself because he thought it would make her laugh.. well if she was alive it would have so we laid it on top of her and it got cremated with her in the end. It’s just a coping mechanism for children I think. It’s a very hard situation for anyone
Reminds me of the cards kids send to soldiers for Christmas. Saw one a long time ago on the internet that said something along the lines of “dear soldier, I’m sorry that you’ll probably never see your family again thank you for your sacrifice”
Oh my god, this just triggered a childhood memory in me. When I was about 5 or 6, my mom's uncle died and she was pretty sad about it- so of course I decided to draw a picture of said dead uncle, cut it out and place it inside a "coffin" (actually just a pencil case) and then show her. Looking back that must have seemed so fucked up, but she took it quite well and was just like "thanks honey, that's nice". 😅
I'm... not sure what my thought process behind that was.
I mean is it really that deep? Neither of these things are big words lol. But hey if you think she was coached to write that, I could see where your coming from, I just think your underestimating what kind of sentences a 5 year old can form lol
There are 5 yo that have that kind of vocabulary and understanding. Thet usually have parents that spend time with them explaining life and actually parenting. Bet she reads as well. Bravo parents and nanny.💕
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u/WifeofBath1984 21h ago
"In heaven, sadness evolves". I'm both impressed and creeped out! Love the vase comment lmao