After a very challenging parenting week, you realize that your kids really cannot hear you, yet hear a whole host of other wonderful things, from other adults, kids, and tv.

"Mom, you know when you was little, and I was an alien, and you grew up, and sh*t me out your butt?" (Insert a Mom nearly choking on her tea!)

Yep. That's a fun one to tackle. Mya swore she said, "ship." But, my trained Mom ears do not hear ship. My "context clues" (thank you first grade homework for allowing the refresher course last month) lead me to believe she's being crafty to not get into trouble, and changing her word choice as needed. Of course, we can say "ship" all we want.

It got better...

No matter what I said, she insisted this was the way aliens had babies. (Outer space must be why my sushi gave me a tummy ache last night.) As if a timed masterpiece realted to my saga, that same day, we got excited seeing a Netflix kids' puppy show showed a brief blirp of a mama puppy "shipping" out her baby aliens.

There were so many other fun asides from this Mya doozie. Max reminded me all week whenever he heard his sister talking about baby aliens. "Mom, Mya said 'sh*t,' again," he'd yell, no matter where we were at the moment. This included both the safety of our quiet abode, or the school pick-up lines. (It took some time, but this became a huge parenting win to get that word off my kiddos' word lists.)

Sometimes, this fun biology lesson would be graced with other doozies of seven-year-old wisdom, the following a perfect example of her older brother's widsom. "Mya, you aren't an alien! Moms poop out baby people and dogs poop baby puppies. Lucy will poop baby puppies when she gets older."

Aliens and baby poop have been many a reason for Mom to seek asylum in her timeout closet. Don't tell anyone it exists!

"Mom, you know when you was little, and I was an alien, and you grew up, and sh*t me out your butt?" (Insert a Mom nearly choking on her tea!)

PLEASE FOLLOW ME as I embark on a quest to enjoy, learn from, and raise my little bamBEANos, in the best way this Mama Chickpea can. Art is my "balance" to life and I enjoy all the DIY therapy I can handle!

Artwork © copyright Shelly Arroyo, A.k.a. Mama Chickpea.