This morning on the bus on the way to school, my son was talking about the jobs he’d like to do when he grew up. “I’d really like to do pizza delivery because then I’d get to drive a scooter around.”

(me, looking at him in his private school uniform and thinking that the money spent on his fees so far could have been used for… oh, so much… like the mortgage) “Well, you can drive a scooter even if you’re not a pizza delivery guy, you know.”

“Yeah, but I’d get to see so much geography.”

(me thinking about how much fuller my bank account could be right now) “Well, you’d only really see the city doing that and you get to see the city all the time. If you were the pilot of an airplane, however, you’d get to see a lot more of the world…”

“I like geography. It’s interesting…. There’s a lot of really interesting things in maths as well.”

(me suddenly feeling like it mightn’t all be a waste after all) “ Yea, maths is really, really interesting. And you need it for almost everything.”

“Yea! Like cutting pizzas!”

(me groaning inside) “Did you know that everything can be explained by maths.”

“Really?! Everything?!”

(me hoping I can keep him on the ‘right’ path here) “Yea. Absolutely everything. The way things move, the way they are built… everything.”

“…Even poos?”

(me taking a breath…)”Yes, even poos. They can be explained by biology, which can be explained by chemistry, which can be explained by physics, which can be explained by maths… ”

“Cool! Pee equals M C squared hahahahaha!”

I sometimes wonder if sending him to a school where the average class size is 12 is worth the financial sacrifice… you know, if he’s still gonna just end up making toilet jokes… :)