Don't Drink The Bum Water

I'm pretty sure that, over the years, I will offer my son loads and loads of advice about life in general, all in the name of trying to guide and support him in the decisions he'll make throughout his life.

Some of it, he might even listen to. Some of it, he might even take.

For me, while I did hear a lot of my own parents' advice, I remember ignoring a lot of it. It wasn't until after I left for University, of course, when their years of advice kicked in and started to make sense to me. I experienced that age-old phenomenon that when I went away to University, I was amazed at how much my parents learned about the world and life in those four years. It was astounding. When I was a teenager living at home, they were practically idiots who knew nothing. But they learned loads those four years I was away, and by the time I finished University, they were intelligent, wise and pretty darn cool. I'm glad I moved away so that they could have the opportunity to learn so much.

Since Alexander is so small, I haven't yet had the opportunity to offer him pearls of great wisdom such as Polonius' advice to Laertes (in Hamlet) "neither a borrower nor a lender be" (wasn't that also advice given in The Merchant of Venice? I'll have to look it up) or the advice that Robin Williams gave to his students in Dead Poet Society "carpe diem"

Mischievious baby - Alex in the bathtub at 10 months

No, instead, the advice I'm offering him of late are simple, mundane things, but pearls of wisdom nonetheless. Juicy bits such as: "Don't drink the bum water!" -- Since I can remember, he has loved playing in the water, and filling up whatever containers are handy in the bathtub with the soapy water and drinking it.

Of course, he hasn't yet listened to this advice. While the annoying blathering of his father's voice goes on in the background he drinks the bath water in an almost ritualized fashion, and with a focused concentration, the way a priest drinks the Holy wine during mass.

Maybe when he gets home from University he'll finally get it and listen to his father.