Too late to have "the talk" with Noah

I knew there would come a time to have “the talk” with my kids. Of course, there is not just one “the talk.” Every one of them will, at some time, have to sit down to hear “the talk” from us on things like drinking, drugs, smoking, sex, and of course, Molly will have to get an exciting discussion on menstration. WooHoo! LOL

I couldn’t have ever imagined that I was already too late for one important talk until Noah came home from school on day this week.

He excitedly told me, “I have something in my backpack to show you, Mom!”

“Oh, what is it, Noah?” I asked with matched excitement. He then pulled out an oval-ish shaped decorated paper that was attached to a popsicle stick. “Oh, that’s cool,” I told him, “What is it?”

“You see, Mom, there is going to be a big football game called the SuperBowl. And, there are two teams playing — one is the Bears and one is the Colts. I’m going to root for the Bears. Who are you going to root for, Mom?”

WHAT? The Bears?!? How did I not know that this first “talk” I needed to have with him was about football teams?

Jack jumped in to the exchange, “I’m going to root for the Bears too!”

I had to intervene. “Well, I’ll be rooting for the Colts.”

Noah thought about this for a moment and replied, “Maybe Dad will be rooting for the Bears.”

“Oh no, he won’t,” I quickly informed him, with a twinkle in my eye.

We then went on to have a discussion that the Colts are our team because they are from Indianapolis. This made the kids want to know where the Bears were from. Perhaps it would have been better if they were from some place they had never heard of before. Maybe I should have said, “Oh, they’re from Anaheim. You know, the Anaheim Bears.”

But, instead, when they found out it was Chicago, they gasped and both shouted together, “THAT’S WHERE AUNT RENEE LIVES!” Apparently this was to be another plus for the Bears.

In the end, Jack (ever the momma’s boy) has decided that he actually wants the Colts to win. I suppose it has helped that just about every relative that they have asked “Who are you rooting for?” has answered with “The Colts!”.

Still, Noah has persisted, and is still going to be rooting for the Bears in just a couple of hours. And, admittedly, this has been fun. We decided to have our own “SuperBowl Celebration” (as Noah is calling it) with snacks and decorations (complete with a large mylar Bears balloon and a large mylar Colts balloon). This has made for a special weekend for us that probably wouldn’t have happened if Noah had come home declaring that he was for the Colts. Instead, we are having a good time getting ready for this celebration and have had a great time asking all kinds of relatives, “Who are you rooting for?”, even if Noah has been a little dismayed to hear so many Colts answers. Although, if you want to know what true love is, it was that after Noah came home with a 100% on his spelling test, his eternal buddy, Papa, declared that he would be rooting for the Bears, just for Noah. That’s some kind of love.