Oright, so due to a seating reshuffle at work I now sit downstairs (yep that's my knees cheering) in a dark little corner surround by colleges young enough to be my kids... so the play pen... it's a daily reminder of how old I am and how vast the generation gap is..

 

So to give you an idea we are a culturally diverse group and the kids were talking about what natos they get mistaken for when they go out...

J1.. (Anglo-Indian) I get mistaken for a Leb (Lebanese) all the time.

J2.. (Turkish)... yeah I get that and Greek and Italian.

K.. (Serb) ... I get Greek or Turkish.

Me.. (very white Australian)...I know what you mean when I go out people mistake me for a Skip all the time.

(So back in the day Skip was slang for a white European Aussie)

J1, J2, K ... huh?? .... wots a Skip

Me... (in shock)... um a Skip, you know Skippy the Bush kangaroo?

J1... wots skippy the bush Kangaroo

Me... wot you talkin bout Willace? (Which illicitly more blank stares as it flew right over their heads... Skippy was an old TV show, it was like the Aussie version of Lassie...except Skippy was a kangaroo.

So the children all look at each other blankly then I get..

J2.. um Jo, wots Lassie.

Me... just google it... it'll be on you tube.

I remember Skippy ...and Lassie ....and Ivanhoe 😀

Eye-van-hoooooe.... we have a suburb in Melbourne named Ivanhoe, and I have to pronounce it that way every time.

 

So yesterday I played a game with the children.... Are you smarter than a 16 month old.... saddly, 5 outa 5 failed.

 

So my sis sent me footage of her genius baby identifying historically famous Aussies from their pictures....

Captain Cook ... first European to discover Australia and be bothered to claim it (both the Dutch and the French passed).

Mary MacKillop ... a nun who became the first Australian Saint.

Sir Don Bradman.... greatest cricket batsman, ever... retired with an average of 99.94 (so almost 100 runs every innings he batted, as an average)

Weary Dunlop... WW2 army doctor who was a POW and well just Google him, pretty amazing what he and his other doctors did to keep other POWs alive on the Burma Thailand railway.

Douglas Mawson... Arctic Explorer

 

So anyway.... got pictures of each of them and asked the kids to see how many they could name. A couple got Mary MacKillop and young cobsie got the Don.... but that was it.

 

So then I played the footage of Miss 16 months old naming them all...and then I named he other 10 in the chart she didn't name. This was primary school history.

 

Best comment went to K... why wasn't Ned Kelly there I know that one... bit hard to miss the bloke with a metal bin on his head.

G’day 

I got a blank look from the neighbours kid with this one