Sitting down to dinner the other night.
The Kid: Can I start a conversation?
me: Sure
[Note: I think it’s weird that he asked that, as there’s definitely not a “seen but not heard” rule ’round here. Also, because of that, I should have known something was up.]
TK: If you had a micro robot, what would it do?
[conversation ensues about what constitutes a micro robot—the answer is basically smaller than a typical adult human which is bigger than I would consider micro, but it’s not my question]
TK: I have an idea, but you go first.
me: OK. I want mine to clean the house. Wait. Can it do more than one thing? Can it clean the house and cook?
Climbing Daddy: You have yours do one and I’ll have mine do the other.
TK: It can do both.
me: Oh! But better than that, it can pull the grass and the weeds in the yard. Can it do all three things?
TK: Sure!
CD: Hmmm, so I don’t need mine to do any of those things? Let me think.
TK: I’ll tell you mine! It’s going to be very small, the size of a human cell. And … [insert long explanation about how his micro robot is going to capture and kill viruses inside people, and how it would first be for people in the hospital and high risk people but it could be for everyone]
And that’s how long it took for me to be embarrassed that my micro robot would take care of household chores.
Also, this is one way he is dealing with the pandemic, and it was obvious he had spent some time thinking about it prior to opening the conversation.
Also, if his robot is going to take care of massive health issues, I might as well let mine take care of the house. And assuming both are going to be widely available…
Also, I’m still feeling a little defensive. Can you tell?