Katie (6 years) has a small black plastic "Barbie" (tm and copyright etc etc) backpack that she got for Christmas last year...

This morning she was running around the house with it on. "Dad? I have a survival pack all packed up...It has everything I need! Do you want to see?"

"Sure!" (Of course)

"This pack is for when I travel. It has all the things that I might need in an emergency Dad." And she slowly unzips the pack. (I'm thinking survival...it is early and the coffee hasn't taken effect yet so I wasn't prepared for the first ‘survival' item. ... What was I thinking? A Rambo knife? K-rations? Whatever I personally thought was necessary for survival it had very little to do with what a 6 year old girl thought made up the essentials for life.)

Ziiiiiiiiiip. And first out of the pack was the MOST important thing... yup you guessed it. A Koala. "I need the Koala from Grandma along in-case I hafta sleep over or I need to cuddle something."

Next we have hair ties, "in-case Mommy forgets to bring any...or if I break one...Plus I have my little hair brush ( 1 cm in length...made for dolls)."

"And look Daddy, I have this game, in-case I get bored." (She has a ‘ring the pegs' game that is supposed to work by squirting water inside the cell phone like case...all the water is out of the game so it doesn't actually do anything...hope she doesn't get bored!)

"Aaaaand Look! I put in a pad and pen...in-case Mommy wants to write me a note." ...."Oh! And three rubbers (erasers)" (No pencils...but three erasers...hmmm at least they are three different colours: striped black and white, Light and dark pink and blue and pink...all doggy bone shaped.)

"Hee hee...Look Daddy I put a bird in here too...just in case...I put her in a box so she can't fly away." (The bird figurine is quite safe in her clear plastic box.)

"Oh and I put in some bubble gum in-case I get hungry...and a hanky."

"And THIS!" She shows me her new charm bracelet that she got yesterday out of her ‘girls magazine gift pack'. "If I get sad this reminds me of puppies and kitties!" (I need one of those too!)

I've looked through the rest of the pack...I found: a dolls mirror, a secret message decoder that clips onto your belt loops, a fuzzy piece of cloth (who knows why!) and a coffin shaped container that used to have candy in it...empty now.

I was thinking that I really should work on letting the kids know about what is and what isn't essential... Clare was quite pleased with Katie's collection of ‘survival' gear. Being a Mum she had a completely different spin on it.

‘Isn't it great that she doesn't worry having all the "really" essential things...she just fills up her bag with the little things that maker her life more enjoyable.

Yeah...she's right...I wish someone would put a Koala in my overnight bag!