CHAPTE R 16
Tomorrow Is a Better Day I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. – from Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
“Y
ou’re supposed to wash your hair when you bathe,” I said to James who was sitting in the tub, arranging his plastic animals along the edge. “It’s part of getting clean.” “But I don’t feel like it,” said James. “Why not?” I said through clenched teeth. James had rubbed my last nerve on a long day. “It’s not now,” he answered. I sat back on my heels and thought about what he had said. While James plays with his animals in the tub, talking to them and splashing water, the furthest thing from his mind is washing his hair. During bath time, he builds a world that he believes is real and completely devotes himself to that moment. It’s a world in which Arctic and Antarctic animals live in harmony because when James plays God of the Tub, wherein anything he imagines can happen. I thought James was procrastinating, even though he didn’t know the meaning of the word. Grownups know – and some of us are pretty good at postponing things we don’t like to do, especially as a regular
Mommy Musings | 59