We attended a meeting last night at a local community center, located in the poorer section of town. This center provides a lot of services such as alcohol counselling and programs for keeping kids off the streets.
The meeting room was obviously one that was used for younger children, as there were signs on the walls cautioning about taking turns and rules and such.
My attention wandered from the budget meeting and my eyes came to rest on some papers tacked to the wall that were entitled “Smart Girls Rule!” From the grammar and spelling, they appeared to be written by girls in the 8-year old range or so. They were lists of what ‘smart girls’ (or ‘smart girs’ in one case) feel are the necessary social graces.
Tacked off to the side was one badly scrawled list of five rules that were probably direct quotes from the girl’s mother:
1. When you cough, cover your mouth.
2. Cover your hole when you fart.
3. You should blow your nose instead of pick it.
4. When you fart you should go to the bathroom.
5. Cover your nose when you sneeze.
This seemed like such a great recipe for success in life, other than “never have unprotected casual sex” that I thought I would pass it on.
How does one cover one’s hole? Itseems to me that this would be grosser than just farting. And if you go to the bathroom to fart why must you still cover your hole? And why am I so fixated on this?
I would love to know if her mother has seen her list. I had to sit there and ponder what the home life must be like and sound like for this child, if these are some of the rules being laid down.
I desperately wanted to take the paper off the wall and turn it over to see what other ‘rules’ were on the back (the last rule was cut off before the last word and there was an arrow pointing to the paper’s edge), but didn’t want to draw attention.
These rules might not be all the wisdom that is dispensed in the girl’s house. Eight-year-olds just adore fart humor. And snot humor. That kid could be a budding comedienne.
