Growing up must really suck.
Obviously, being an ancient critter myself, I can barely remember, but Flea is most definitely growing up.
She’ll be in junior school this term, and that means all sorts of changes – not least purchasing a gum shield and shin pads (gulp). Flea’s also started to call me Mum sometimes – tentatively, as if she’s trying out how it sounds on her tongue. She wants to do more, too –Â taking on the care of the Forces of Darkness (aka the kittens) almost single-handedly.
Of course, she’s still a little girl in lots of ways. She skips as often as she walks, and she plays, and crawls into my bed in the wee small hours, so I wake, to find her holding my hand.
But it’s a tricky balance to get right.
Last week, Flea invited her best friend for a sleepover. On the way home from the beach, we stopped at an old-fashioned sweet shop in the next town over. Flea bought some Wonka Sweets Everlasting Gobstoppers. Â The girls began sharing them in the back of the car on the drive home.
“These aren’t the ones that go chewy, they stay hard when you suck them,” Flea told her friend.
“I know, but they’re not everlasting,” her friend replied.
Worried pause.
“What happens, then? Do they break your teeth?”Â
“No Flea,” said the friend, patiently. “They go small then you bite them.”Â
“So they’re not everlasting?”Â
“Nope.”Â
Another pause. Flea looked even more worried.
“Do you think Willy Wonka is.. a liar?”Â
There was a hushed silence, while both girls absorbed this terrible possibility.
“Maybe the chocolate factory isn’t real?” Â the friend ventured.
Flea was aghast. Her friend was equally horrified by this possibility. They hit upon a reasonable compromise. “The glass elevator is probably not real, but the chocolate factory almost definitely is,” said Flea, and both girls nodded, happy. Sweets continued to be chewed.
After a few minutes, in a definite voice, Flea announced:
“Willy Wonka’s still a liar, though.”Â
I wonder if anyone actually built a willy wonka factory?! I NEED to google this!
Smart girl! BG has already started calling me Mum not Mummy *sob*
I don’t want to be judgemental about WW so about the other thing… I got a few “Mum”s after a week staying with our teenage cousins. One week, that’s all it took! She seems to have forgotten about it now though. Phew.
I’m more surprised that they’ve been making Wonka chocolates since the original film in 1971 – and that they haven’t been sued for advertising an Everlasting Gobstopper which doesn’t…
It’s sad to think cashing in on marketing something which can’t live up to the fiction started so long ago, even as someone who works in Marketing…
On the plus side, I have at least discovered you can still buy non-themed Lego if you go via their website.
Wonka, Santa, tooth fairy, who and what is next?
Surely someone could report them to ASA 🙂 I always thought a kid would call out on this one though as it’s the sort of thing that would really irk them. Just get the a big gobstopper and tell them that’s the everlasting one.
I nearly wet myself, that’s brilliant. I agree there is almost definitely the chocolate factory but Willie Wonka is almost definitely a liar!
I am laughing….sounds like a conversation we’d have here! xx
I cant decide which would be worse at that age, to find out he’s not real or to find out he’s a liar. I didn’t have to suffer anything like this when I was a child because my mum (even though I had already guessed) didn’t give me complete closure on Santa till I was 13/14.
Sarah @ Goodheart Gifts.
This is such a lovely post. I often read your blog on a Friday afternoon to make me smile, and this has made my Tuesday instead. Kids are so innocent!