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Ernie has been having a little trouble controlling his temper, which I think is pretty normal for a 7-year-old boy, but certainly is normal for a 7-year-old boy unlucky enough to somehow be a 100% genetic copy of me. He certainly feels things pretty strongly and is also a very generous and affectionate child, happily sharing and often laughing at jokes even if they are at his expense. But unbelievably sometimes him and his sister wind each other up and his desire to be the centre of attention means that he can be exuberant at school. I just can't imagine what that's like.
I was the most annoying of kids in that me and my friends constantly disrupted lessons with jokes, but also we were the ones who did the best academically. In hindsight it almost looks like a tactic - we find this stuff pretty easy, but let's ensure no one else gets a chance to do well.
As it turned out learning to find the joke in everything would also be a useful career move for me, but sorry to the rest of the class who not only had to endure my poor attempts at humour, but also were distracted from the work at hand. And particular apologies to Biology teacher Miss Button who we were particularly annoying and unmanageable for.
Anyway in an attempt to help us all learn about and navigate our complex emotions, Catie has bought a couple of card games which we played today. In Emotion Notion there are cards that set up tricky situations and then you have to select the emotion that you think the person might be feeling
"Ali cuddled his blanket and sat comfortably on his bed after a long day. Ali felt -" You're probably supposed to choose Calm or Happy here. But it's up to you.
I love my kids very much regardless - that's part of the parental deal - but I loved them even more playing this game with them, because both of them just immediately saw how funny it would be to choose the exact wrong answer
"Maya was feeling cold outside as she forgot her scarf; luckily, Isabel had a spare one to lend her. Maya felt...
"Disgusted" suggested Phoebe.
"Confused!" shouted Ernie.
We all laughed, even Catie who had set up this game with noble intentions. I didn't help by suggesting that the protagonists always felt ashamed regardless of what they were doing.
It was much more fun to play the game wrong, but also it did prove that the kids understood emotions as you had to know the right answer to get the answer wrong.
Either that or they're both psychopaths. Hopefully the former, but I still love them regardless.
It's surprisingly endlessly amusing to get these wrong.
"Joshua and his team won the school basketball competition and received a medal. Joshua felt..."
"Bored!"
"Ashamed!"
"Ayesha thought that nobody in her class could play instruments well, until she heard Lucas playing the guitar. Ayesha felt"
"Nervous"
"Like she shouldn't be such a judgemental idiot" - I can't believe that's one of the cards!
It felt good to all be laughing as a family, all laughing at the same thing and it not being one of the others. This game is revolutionary. Did the people who invented it do this on purpose? If so they should feel confused and angry with themselves.
