It’s the small things that matter

When you get older, you realise it’s the small things in life that make living worthwhile. Not little Egg … she dreams big and don’t like it if anyone spoils her ambition with sentimental nonsense like telling her “the small things in life matters more”.

I treasure the hour after I have picked her up from after-school every day.

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“Look at that gorgeous piece of available land,” she told me one afternoon when we waited for the traffic light to turn green. The “available land” is an open undeveloped field the size of a residential block and she fell in love with it immediately.

“When my boyfriend Alex comes over for a playdate again, I’ll tell him I want him to build me an animal hospital there,” she confided in me.

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“Not a small reception area and consulting room – something nice and big where I can also sell pet supplies and dog food, where I can have a puppy adoption centre, where I can open a grooming centre… I have to get moving along, I’ve almost completed Grade 1 and I should be mature enough to open a doggy hospital next year.”

“You and Alex are only seven. It’s unlikely that he can build anything more lasting than a Lego hospital. And you are much too small and uneducated to operate on living things,” I said.

Not because I’m a dream crusher, but because I don’t want my little angel to grow up.

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“My generation is more mature than you old folks were as kids,” she cut me down to size. “He can just look on YouTube how to build a pet hospital.” “Nonsense,” I told the little brat. “When I was your age, I was nine already.”

When the light turned green, she stared at the open veld through the rear window. “It’s so beautiful,” she swooned.

“I’ll have an animal hospital as big as a mall. With the untamed veld around it… it’s good to live in nature…”

Dear reader, that discussion drove a huge wooden stake through my heart. I don’t want her to become any bigger than she is. As a matter of fact, if I could, I would prune her back to three or four.

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The pet owners can look after their own animals. I want my little girl to remain small. It’s the small things that matter…