Tenses - Past, Present and Future Perfect

I’m a great believer in living in the present, but in this chapter of my life, I find it hard not to live in the future. Not surprising, I hear you say, and no, it isn’t. And in my defence, I think it’s better than living in the past.

I like to invent future conversations that the children will have. I imagine 10-yo as a teenager telling a friend “I lived in America when I was 10” and hearing the reply “oh, cool” (except of course it won’t be cool by then; magic or wicked might have come round again, or a new word will have made it big). I can see 6-yo filling in his university application form, and pausing to say to me "you know Mum, I sometimes still write math instead of maths by mistake". I imagine 3-yo telling me she has to think carefully which version of a nursery rhyme to sing to her baby. She knows it’s “Ring-a-ring o’ Roses” here in England, but she can’t help starting off “Ring around the Rosey”, the one we used to sing together in America, and which is lodged most firmly at that deep level of memory where nursery rhymes are stored.

I’m sure this is why I bought an American version of Monopoly as a Christmas present to ourselves. I didn’t really want to play Monopoly. It was so that in future years, I’ll get the game out and say “I remember buying this in America. I got it in SuperTarget.” It was so that the children will tell their friends “it’s funny playing your English Monopoly, because we have American Monopoly at home”. It was so that we could celebrate this American episode of our lives, once safely back in England.

Life has sneaked up and overtaken me, however. That Monopoly game has become a hit. 3-yo loves playing with the houses and hotels, lining them up, and visiting them with the car or the ship, the dog or the hat. 6-yo loves the money and the property cards, and happily makes up his own games. He is getting to grips with Community Chest and Chance: “What does “you inherit” mean? Do you get the money or do you have to pay it?” He knows how many good and how many bad cards there are in each pack. Best of all, we can play the game as a foursome, when 3-yo is in bed, and it’s fun to grow into the next stage of family life. I didn’t know the boys would be able to play Monopoly and enjoy it. I can't keep up with them.

So there I was, living in the future, and the present caught up with me. The past is hovering around too, since I find it jars to play Monopoly with $500 notes that are orange. At my own deep nursery rhyme level, the 500, whether dollars or pounds, is, and will always be, bright pink.