Work

For the last year or more, Ezra has been going to work. We never actually see him go, but he gives us constant updates and references about what he does at work, what he has at work, with whom he works (mostly Minna and Frog) and sometimes even the food he eats at work.

When we talk about a new place, he says, "Oh yeah. I've been there at my work." When it is time to eat vegetables, "I already had some at my work." "Minna likes to eat that at my work." He has adopted our old ipod as his cell phone, and can often be found having 'work conversations' on it. And the weird thing is, it really sounds like a work converation. "Yeah. Okay. I think it should go over there."

About a year ago I asked what kind of work he does, and he told me he is a teacher. Sweet boy, no?

Last week his friend Plum was over, and they were talking about work. I asked Plum if she works with Ezra, and she said, "No. My work is in China. And sometimes India."

When we ask Ezra where his work is, sometimes he points to Sutro Tower and says it is on one of the neighboring hills. And then after Christmas, we were driving down 7th Avenue toward the bridge, and Ezra pointed to a white apartment building and said, very nonchalantly, "Oh. There's my work." Jackie and I jumped in excitement and for a moment I almost turned the car in the direction of that building, thinking that we could go there and see his office.

But why work? Where is the fairy land or imaginary world kids his age generally invent? Sure, I understand that I go to work every day, so he knows it is a place that could very well be either imaginary or filled with fairies (unfortunately, of course, it is neither). I also know that since I don't come home miserable too often, work could be as pleasant as any imaginary world he might think of. But there is something about the change this represents, that I am somehow tainting childhood by allowing my 3 year old to have a career that makes me uncomfortable. Or maybe he is setting himself up for an adulthood in which work is joyful and fulfilling. Who knows.