Kid's Got a Point

Laurence has a couple of joke & riddle books that somehow have managed to make their way into my car time & time again, meaning that when we're going places I'm subjected to hearing the same jokes & riddles over and over and over again. It's become excrutiating. I've memorized a lot of them, of course, and the newest game has become me quickly and flawlessly answering riddles as soon as he asks them. "You are really good at these, Mommy!" he says each time in amazement. One of these days he'll catch on. Until then, though, I'll blurt, "It's hard to tell which witch is which!" to his question, "How can you tell one witch from another?" or "No, they only have giraffes!" to "Can giraffes have babies?" (one of my personal favorites, because of the giraffe thing).

Anyway, today, on the way to & from the grocery store, which is approximately 2 minutes from our house, we went thru several of the same old riddles. Suddenly Laurence stops and says, "Mom, you know that riddle 'Why did the chicken cross the road?'" "Yep," I said. "The answer is, 'to get to the other side.' Once someone hears that once, it's just not funny anymore." Before I could reply he says, "Actually, it's not even funny the first time you hear it." This time I blurt, "I couldn't agree more!" And he says, "You mean you're NOT going to argue with me?" Nope, I'm not. The kid has an excellent point. It's a really stupid riddle. I've thought so ever since I was five. And how nice to have something for us to agree on after the last couple of days we've had together. Perhaps riddle time isn't such a bad thing, after all.