Wrestling Penguins

So there we were, me and Jack, eating candy corn and watching the penguins. Jeremy was in his science class learning about gravity by dropping unfertilized eggs off a bridge with the rest of his zoo class friends. Jack and I were enjoying some time together. Just us.

While I’m relaxing and lining up candy corn pieces on my leg, I casually look over at Jackson, who has his nose pressed up against the glass of the penguin exhibit.

“Mom, WHAT are they DOING?” he asks.

“What do you mean?” I say. The penguins look like they’re just standing there, probably bored, but I get up anyway and walk to the glass where Jackson is standing.

Oh. Now I see.

“Well,” I pause, considering my words. “It looks like they’re wrestling.”

“Wrestling?!?” he laughs. “That’s weird.”

“Yes, it is,” I gulp, not ready to define “wrestling” to a six-year-old, as it pertains to girls and boys and all of that jittering between them.

“Hey, let’s go see the red panda!” I say.

“Okay!” he replies. And off we went, giving the penguins some privacy and saving myself from a scary conversation.

6 Comments

  1. My future husband really, really likes penguins. We go visit them at the zoo as often as possible, but we’ve never seen that.

    I can actually imagine having to have the same conversation with our future kids someday!

    Lorna

    1. I have not seen them “wrestle” before either, but I assume it happens! I just didn’t expect my six year old to see it. No worries, though. The image has probably already left his mind.

    1. The only other “wrestling” we’ve seen at the zoo involved two very large turtles, so there wasn’t much swift movement in the act. It just looked like one was crawling on top of the other. We escaped the scene with few questions!

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