What's booj-wa?

It's probably a weird way to get your kids to think about politics,
but I try to make every opportunity a teachable moment for my kids.

So tonight, when Solanne chastised me for not knowing something about
The Nutcracker, I explained to her that I never had the opportunity to
see the ballet when I was a kid. I wasn't as lucky as her.

"Why, mama?"

Well, I said, half seriously, half tongue-in-cheek, I grew up in a
working class family; I wasn't Bourgeois like you guys.

"What's booj-wa?"

And that's when I gave them a little lesson about the class system. I
started with what it means to be working class: to have just enough
money to pay for the basics like a home and food and electricity - if
you're lucky. No extra money for things like going to nice restaurants
or buying fancy dresses or going on vacations - or to the ballet.

Maïa, sensitive as she is about these things, asked, "does that mean
the roofers (who've been working on the roof on our lane all winter)
don't have extra money to do things they want?"

Probably not. Not because their wages are very low, but because they
don't get to work on stormy days or windy days or bitterly cold days.
And they don't get paid for days off like I do.

"But why not? Their work is important, too."

Indeed it is, Maïa. And that was the beginning of my lesson on
sharing, also known as socialism.