We had a little incident while on vacation. Other than the usual great aunt making outrageous comments, to include “I want to take a picture of your children when they AREN’T crying. Is there any way you can guarantee that?” Clearly my children are very perceptive when it comes to people. Believe you me. I would have been crying if it hadn’t been socially taboo to do so.
I was having a discussion with The Boy regarding his attempts to divert my attention in order to use his powers for evil rather than good. I may have used the word “divert” in our conversation. One of the cousins stood by with a shocked look on her face.
Cousin: You used the word “divert” with him.
K: I guess I did.
Cousin: And he understood.
K: I guess he did.
Cousin: He’s only 2.
K: I guess he is.
Cousin: Do you always talk to him like that?
K: I guess I do.
I just assume that The Boy is like The Dog. He will understand about 40% of what I am saying and will figure out the rest from my tone of voice. Sure we talk over the kid’s head but I kinda like the sound of my own voice.
Of course, I am failing to take into account the way his father speaks to him as well. For example, the long diatribe The Husband subjected us to in the junk yard parking lot when he explained to The Boy that we needed to get a new headlamp for the car in order to pass the “totalitarian” state’s inspection and that we didn’t want to pay the dealer $850 because there was a little crack on the side of the fully functional headlamp.
Maybe he just likes the sound of his own voice too.
Occidental Girl says:
Hee hee! I loved the comment about guaranteeing that your kids won’t cry at a certain moment. Sure! Why not?? Because all parents can control THAT, it’s just that we are lazy and choose not to…
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:16 am
Catherine says:
Were our husbands separated in youth? Mine will answer easy questions about traffic lights with the like of: it’s the oil cartel’s way of keeping us under their control, or it’s the man’s way of dictating how fast or slow we lead our lives. Of course, these are the abridged versions of answers to questions like, why is the light red?
As for talking to kids with grown up words, why would you talk down to him? He’s a kid and will one day be an adult and won’t it be nice when he can use divert properly rather than the possible alternative of: uhm, to like, you know, go around.
I think I used my colon quota for the week.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:13 am
Marelle says:
The other day, Faith said “Precisely.”
I said, “Precisely?”
Then, I asked what “precisely” means.
She went onto to tell me.
I think she was right.
And, she also gave Steve from Blue’s Clues the credit.
August 22nd, 2007 at 2:43 pm
tvtown says:
Better to teach him about the totalitarian state now so he can grow up to fight the system…..headlamps be damned!!!
I grunt to my daughter…seems to work.
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Loralee says:
I have always talked to my kids like that. It’s probably why my 11-year-old used the word “Umbrage” today.
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Liz says:
we try to talk to our son like a regular person, though we leave out the f-bomb (when we remember).
henry will say “cup,” and “out,” and “eat.” but the other day, i swear to god he said “douchebag.”
which means it’s time to watch my language.
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 pm
InterstellarLass says:
See, at my house, it’s the other way round. My kids use the big words on me, and I’m too stunned that they used more than one syllable to remember why I was correcting them.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:25 pm