I witnessed an interesting conversation last night between my five and eight year old girls with a five and eleven year old set of brothers.

When the conversation is being driven by kids and not adults who are too busy with their own cake eating to chime in, it’s interesting to listen from a distance and hear what’s weighing on young people’s minds, especially with the new school year about to ramp up.

Boy 11: Have you ever peed in a pool?

Girl 5: Do you know what’s really gross? Diarrhea!

Boy 11: Do you sleepwalk?

Girl 8: Do you like Scooby Doo? (anticipating a no as she does not like the show herself)

Boy 11: Yeah, I love Scooby-Doo

Girl 8: Me too! I love it. (liar)

Girl 5: Did you see the Phinneas & Ferb where Candace broke her leg?

Boys: Yep.

Girl 5: Yeah. I like that one. (nodding as her adult size bandana/makeshift headband flopped over her eyes blinding her)

Husband: Dooby dooby dooby…Agent P….(trying to sound relevant)

A casual discussion ensued about how big each of their backyards is. They estimated things like the distance from the sun to the earth over to the flower bed and back as an approximate comparison. No wonder their dad complains about how long it takes to mow.

Girl 5: My Mom doesn’t let us eat salt.

Girl 8: Well, sometimes on corn but I think she pretends to shake it and nothing comes out. (An interesting and accurate observation, noted, I’ll need to be more discreet with future fake shaking).

As parents, we found the whole conversation comical and yet, it flowed from one topic to the next in a mini-version of an adult discussion with some sense of when and how to transition. It made us realize our kids are growing up faster than we are ready for. Hanna was even rocking the cell phone dangling from her front pocket. Nobody needed to know it was just a cardboard picture of one. Ellie’s was a thin, alarm clock she had folded in half.