The other day I was walking along with my 3.5 year old son. We were holding hands and chatting about some random thing, when he asked, ever so sweetly,

“Hey mum. When does my real life start?”

“Uh. What do you mean?”

“My REAL LIFE. When does it start?”

I explained that he was going to Kindergarten in a few weeks. Then he’ll grow up a bit, be in Year 1, then Year 2. Soon he’ll be a teenager, then a young adult… and in fact, his REAL LIFE has already started. He’s living it RIGHT NOW!

“No no! I’m talking about the life where I get to make my own rules. THAT’S when real life starts! I want a real life and it’s taking too long…”

The poor kid prattled on and on along some long complicated 3-year-old-philosophical reasoning and I wondered how on earth I was going to get out of this one.