What a Shame?

Last night was significant first. I was reading Joshua a bedtime story of Thomas and his trains. During one chapter James laments that Trevor was getting broken up at the scrap yard and kept on saying “What a shame, what a shame.”

Suddenly Joshua asks me his first ever question about a word and I’m sure will not be his last, “Daddy, what’s shame?”

I was momentary stunned. Firstly I had never expected it, and secondly I totally did not know how to reply him.

“Ah, it’s something people say when they feel bad.” I’m not sure if he understood and I felt a little stupid. But he looked at me for a moment, and then turned the page for me.

What a shame?