I Sang This to Matthew & He Cried
0
0
It goes:
“5 little ducks went out one day / Over the hills and far away / Momma duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack!” / But only 4 of those ducks came back.”
It goes on this way, decreasing in the number of ducks, and Matthew’s cheeky grin was replaced by a look of pure sadness, until:
“1 little duck went out one day / Over the hills and far away / Momma duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack!” / But… none… of those little ducks came back.”
I admit to dramatising it a lot more, with deliberate pauses and sad faces.
My almost-five-year-old son burst into sobs. You know, those great heaving, heartbroken ones and clambered over for a hug.
This is you, my tender-hearted boy and I’m so proud of you. Moved by how this unfolded and the drama of it all, I could barely hold back my own tears. Instead, I asked him why he was sad and he sobbed out something about the momma duck being “so poor thing”.
“But you remember how it ends right?” I asked. We sang this together many times when he was babyier.
“NO!!! WAAAaaaaaH!” he continued to cry.
And so I complete the song for him:
“Momma duck, she went out one day / Over the hills and far away / Momma duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack!” / And ALL OF THOSE LITTLE DUCKS CAME BACK!
Then we laughed. And he cried some more. And I swallowed my tears back down. And we laughed some more.
