Patience.org

Helping your brother and Dad take measurements in the new apartment (where they will eventually sleep, so they have a vested interest)…..

…affords an opportunity to practice your cross-eyed look, in outfit you could have only chosen yourself….

…and of course everything’s funnier if you insert the word ‘poop’ into a sentence…

The lad likes listening and singing along to a lot of music, which is great. He has he run of iTunes and knows his way around YouTube, with only a few restrictions. He seeks out mainly British indie stuff via his Dad (me), but also the Beatles, some Motown stuff, including Michael Jackson from one of his friends, although mainly Beat It and Billy Jean era, i.e. Thriller which is exactly 25 years old (gulp). Seeing videos and pictures of him from the 1970s, ’80s & ’90s, he raised the inevitable question of why his face changed color over that period, something he currently puts down to him getting older and a spot of make-up here & there. Ahem!

Anyway somehow he’d heard that Jackson had been arrested at some point (though, of course, acquitted eventually). So, naturally, the other day he asks Mom, ‘why was he arrested?’ Mom thinks quickly, bearing in mind the audience and says, ‘Taxes.”

The next day he asks Mom for a clarification, “why did he get arrested because of his taxes? What did he do?” His little sister, in earshot, interjects, “what did he do, did he jump on the taxi?” “No, not taxi,” he explains, by way of clarification, “his taxes.” “Oh,” she says, content with the explanation. He must be one of the most complicated artists to explain to your kids.