The Yellow Wiggle

Today on our way to school, I mentioned to Robbie that Greg was going to be leaving the Wiggles. I felt like this was a bit of news that he could understand and handle. Robbie is still a fan of the Wiggles. He doesn't watch it nearly as often as he used to... but he does like to bring out a DVD every once in a while or catch an episode on the Disney Channel. Because I was sure it would some day come up, I thought bringing it up on my own time was best. I planned it for the drive to school for many reasons. The drive is the perfect length... about 20 minutes. Long enough to have a decent conversation about it, but not long enough to obsess over it. Also, he'd have school as a distraction.

Seems like a lot of forethought for a topic that really isn't earth shattering... but I know my son. And thankfully, I read him right on this topic. I told him that Greg (the yellow Wiggle) would no longer be a part of the group and that his friend Sam would be wearing the yellow shirt now. He took it all in stride. His first question was if Sam was nice. I assumed he was and explained that he has worked with the Wiggles for sometime now and could do all the same things Greg could do.

His second question was "Why is Greg not going to be a Wiggle anymore?" I tried to explain to him that he was sick. Robbie understood, explaining to me that he was just sick and that when he was sick, he couldn't dance either. I got the feeling that Robbie thought Greg would be back, so I equated Greg's illness to my own health problems. Explaining that there are just certain things that I can't do... and they are things that I will probably not ever be able to do.

Robbie became sad. "But Greg is my favorite Wiggle". I know, I'm a bit slow, but I never really make the connection with Greg - Robbie's favorite color, yellow - and Greg being his favorite Wiggle. My mistake.

The entire drive was dedicated to a discussion about Greg, what he'd be doing, where he would go while he was no longer working and where he lives. I told him he lives in Australia. Robbie excitedly said "That's where the Crocodile Hunter lives!"

I decided that we'd had enough truth for one day. I just confirmed that Steve Irwin is from the same place and tried to change the subject. Illness is one thing, I'm not ready for the death discussion. We leave that to dinosaurs and animals.