The Things We Do For Love

Theo burst into the kitchen this morning with the kind of excitement usually reserved for Christmas morning or dinosaur documentaries. ‘Mom! Look what I found!’ he announced, holding up a mason jar that contained… something. Something with legs. Something that was definitely still moving.

The Things We Do For Love

Now, I’ve dealt with a lot of bodily fluids in my nursing career. I’ve seen things that would make grown men faint. But there’s something about bugs that just gets to me, and my eleven-year-old knows this. The kid has been collecting specimens since he could walk, and every single time he presents one to me, I have to channel every ounce of acting ability I possess.

The evidence

‘It’s a carabid beetle, Mom! They’re actually beneficial because they eat garden pests!’ he explained with the authority of a tenured entomologist. I nodded and made appropriately impressed sounds while plotting my escape route to the hand soap. Marcus, of course, was conveniently ‘in a meeting’ upstairs during this whole exchange.

Acting interested like a good mom

The things we do for love, right? Tomorrow he’ll probably bring me a spider and I’ll have to pretend that’s fascinating too. At least Sophie just asks me about skincare routines these days.