On our way home from the Madinat Christmas Market yesterday evening, where the kids saw Santa, they were in high spirits.  We arrived at the market 10 minutes early.  Santa was not in his sleigh but…his gift filled sacks were!  His sleigh was roomy enough for my brood to chill out comfortably, which they did.  For some reason, the sleigh came adorned with handbells (seriously, why?).  Santa’s sleigh was just an open invitation to every child to mess, cause mayhem and ring the bells until such time as the ‘dongers’ came off their ‘ringers’!  DD had a good ‘nosey’ through the 2 sacks filled with surprise goodies, and had already decided which gift she wanted before Santa arrived.  She caught the attention of her brothers, and the jittery huddle that formed suggested a high level meeting to decide what they should choose from Santa’s sacks!

When Santa arrived, the kids weren’t all that bothered.  They stepped down to make way for him but continued to jockey for pole position in line to see him!  Equally Santa did not seem all that interested in his job.  Honestly, our 3rd year going to the Madinat for our Santa visit (and for the two 7 year olds this may be the last for them….sniff, sniff…), and this guy has to have been the most miserable, uninterested Santa ever…..he didn’t say a word to the kids, didn’t wish them ‘Merry Christmas’…nothing….nada.

Thankfully the kids didn’t notice.  The twins chose the soft toy over the ‘bucket and spade’ set.  DS2 felt he had to follow their lead….even though I think he wanted the more practical of gifts.

So, back to the car ride home.  I am not sure who started it….but stuck in a traffic jam, the kids were chatting back and forth when one of them piped up to say ‘Yooouuuu are soooo hooooottttt’!

Clearly I misheard.  My chldren are not there yet, I assured myself, blaming every kid and their older siblings for potentially exposing them to ideas beyond their years.  But judging by the conversation that followed, I had not…it was repeated by the next child.  They started talking about boys at school calling girls at school ‘hot’.

I stole a peripheral glance at DH who was peeing himself laughing.  I, on the other hand, was horrified, and contemplating finishing school for the expat brats in the back!

‘Where did you learn that?’ I enquired as calmly as I could.

‘TV’ came the synchronised reply.

‘Well, no more TV for you guys’, I retaliated, as I continued to mumble furiously under my breath about Disney teen shows.

”Errrr…noooo….actually, ‘so and so’ at school said it to ‘so and so’.  He says it all the time”  came the timely ‘save’.

‘Well, if she is so ‘hot’, you might want to stay away from her in case you burn your fingers (a lesson they are too young to understand, but valid nonetheless!)’, I interrupted.

‘Oh….Mummy……’hot’ means ‘beautiful’, responded my 5 year old DS.  ‘You’re hot, Mummy’, he added.

I couldn’t help but smile…..a charmer already!