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MORE “KID-ISMS”


While many people have stopped posting a comment here-many of you have sent me some cute notes about last week’s “grandson-isms”. So I thought I’d share some other fun sayings that have come “out of the mouths of babes” that I’ve heard from my years teaching and running a day care:



Years ago, our nephew Jonathon (who on this, the 13th of May turns 19) has always had a rather masterful way of observing things did the following while in our daycare. He was about 3 at the time.



A little background-my mom (his grandmother), my sister (his mom), his paternal grandmother and his cousin (our daughter), who were all, how can I say this for mixed company readers-are all extremely well-endowed.



I am not.



We were out in the yard and Jonathon kept on staring at me and squinting one eye and then the other. After about an hour of this, I asked him if his eyes hurt or if he wanted me to check them for eyelashes. He said no. He kept right on squinting and staring. I repeated my offer and asked why he was doing this if his eyes were okay?




His answer? “Auntie, I keep on looking as hard as I can, but I can’t find your meatballs anywhere.”




My husband burst out laughing and I just stood there staring right back at him. The only thing I could come up with was “That’s ok, I can’t find yours either.”



He shrugged and went back to playing.



Not to be outdone by her older brother-our niece Morgan gave us this scenario:




Morgan had a best friend named Cole who was a mere 6 days older than her. The two of them kept us quite busy with their tag team of antics. We never had a problem with either one doing the Day Care “naughtiest” move-the dreaded “B” word. NEVER.
So when we saw our niece calmly sitting next to her “Coley” and suddenly open wide, we were in complete disbelief when she took a huge bite out of his shoulder! We immediately ran over-ice pack in hand. Cole was screaming and crying and our niece was doing the same. The other 10 kids were right there watching the whole event.




We got everyone settled down, we cleaned Cole’s shoulder and he was down to gasps and a few more tears, but our niece who was told she had to help her friend feel better by holding the ice pack on him was crying louder and with more of a vengeance that the victim of this rather unusual attack.




I looked at her and bluntly asked, “Morgan Taylor, Cole is your best friend in the whole world and you love him. You know biting is a very bad and hurtful thing to do-what made you do such a thing???”




Her reply? “Auntie I was just sitting there and looking at Coley and I just loved him so much that I wanted to know that I’d have a part of him forever. I didn’t know it was going to hurt.”




That answer met with stunned looks from both her Aunt and Uncle. We knew we couldn’t laugh, but oh my-our only saving grace was to take turns going behind the dog run and turn where none of the kids could see us.




Toward the end of our 10 year reign in the world of Day Care-we had a little girl who would screech so loud that both my husband and I would literally black out and get dizzy from the level of noise she generated. The group of kids hated her outbursts that would happen numerous times during the day. She was a constant work in progress. We were constantly discussing the painful problem with her parents. Nothing was ever wrong-she was just one of those kids who loved to “blow out” her lungs and everyone’s ears.


One day after a particularly long bout-one of the kids said we should “put her where the sun doesn’t shine”. We were assuming one of his parents had said this and it was a memorable moment in this 4-1/2 year-old’s life.



Since I was literally seeing stars, blacking out and so dizzy from the “note”, I looked at him and said-“I think you have something there Chandler!”




I proceeded to pick up this 2 year-old, kicking and screaming took her to the furthest point away from the play area at the back of the yard and told her that this is where she could scream. I told her not to move until she could talk to us the way her friends did. We titled it “Rachel’s Whiny Spot”. We began to do our activities on the opposite side of the yard.




It never really stopped the frequent tantrums-but per Chandler “this was a good spot because the sun was hidden behind a huge pepper tree and Rachel sounds better in the Whiny Spot.”




I’m sure I have a lot more “kid-isms” in me, but I’d love to hear some of yours!