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I'm watching the Hurricanes game on TV, and the girls have come downstairs and joined me. They have watched bits of games while I'm watching in the past, but they never stay for too long. Though they want to join me, and they want to watch whatever's on, they don't understand what's going on (they are five), and they get restless quickly.
Anyway, today, rather than just sitting quietly until they decide to leave, they are watching more actively. When a Hurricane receives or is handed the ball, they are chanting "Go! Go! Go!" and they are applauding after each play! When they scored a touchdown, the girls exclaimed "Yes!"
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Once, my sister, then about 4 or 5, was watching Blue's Clues. They were "skidooing" in and out of the TV screen. She suddenly got this intense look of concentration on her face, stood up, and walked to the other side of the room. Before I realized what she was doing, she set out at a dead run toward the TV screen, and jumped head first into it, apparently believing Steve when he sang "Blue Skidoo - we can too!" It was really kind of tragic - she smacked her head pretty hard, and I had a very difficult time not laughing. It was then that I decided that my children are never watching television. Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Well, I could teach them to root for the Gators, but why expose them to heartbreak this early?
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Dec 2002
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My psychology teacher told me about watching football games with his 3-year-old daughter. He'd make the touchdown sign and yell "Touchdown!" Eventually, his daughter started doing it too. One day, she was just walking through the room, and the announcer shouted "touchdown!" and she put her arms up in the air and kept walking, without really noticing what she was doing.
She's now 15 and she still has that reflex. Ah, the power of classical conditioning.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Ok, this only happened the other day. I was with my 4 year old brother and my mom in IHOP for lunch, and I was waiting for him outside the men's bathroom ('cuz, ya know, I can't go in there). All of a sudden we hear from the bathroom "BOOP...BOOP...BOOP...BOOP...". Sure enough, he was in the bathroom singing. Of course it echoed in there, and you could hear him through the ENTIRE RESTARAUNT! One waitress turned to me and said "Is that your little brother?" and laughed.
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The kids my sisters and I babysit for were telling Jenny how I'd forgotten about them since I'd gone to college, so she had them call me. The girl informed me that I was eighteen now, so I was too old and going to die soon, and ran through a list of the ways I was likely to die. I don't think she's yet realized by this theory, her parents should have died long ago. Luckily for me, she conceded that maybe I might die of old age, but since I'm sooo old, that won't take very long.
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Speaking of singing in the bathroom - our first grade classroom was in earshot of the bathroom. One day Bradley B. (the class troublemaker) could be heard singing, at the top of his lungs, "B-b-b-b-brad... I'm Brad to the bone!" It still makes me laugh when I remember it. Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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I teach swim lessons during the summer--especially the 3-5 year olds--so I've got alot of cute kid stories and horrid child stories.
One of these cute kids was a repeater that I had taught the previous year. The first day of class, she immediately latched onto my leg, and had to hold my hand as we walked around the pool to the shallow outside. Then she refused to swim with anyone else but me (since she was only four, I had to hold her by the waist as she kicked her feet and paddled her hands, and splashed water everwhere). We normally ask them what kind of television shows they like, and when she said she had watched The Land Before Time before class that day, I mentioned: "When I was your age, I liked that movie too."
She looked up at me with big eyes. "Really?"
And she was excited for the rest of the day because Ms. Maribeth liked her favorite movie. Adorable child.
Posts: 873 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I am in the process of having a social worker review my viability as a parent. This is for an adoption we are working on.
While this is mostly a gimme, unless I have a history of child abuse or am a dead beat dad (I am neither), it is still a bit worrisome.
All my fears melted a couple weekends ago. We went to Silver Dollar City (an amusement park in famed Branson MO). While waiting in the crowded train station for the train, I was talking with my wife. My hand lay at my sides.
Suddenly I felt a tug.
I looked down, and a strange boy, 5 or 6, had grabbed ahold of my hand. He looked up about the time I looked down, and was shocked to discover my hand was NOT the hand of his Daddy.
He didn't scream or anything,though his mother almost did, until I directed the kid to her.
It left me with no doubts about my parental viability.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I went to a reunion of college friends once, and two-year-old daughter of one of them decided I was hers. It was really sweet. Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I have a swim lesson kid story, too. My youngest student was a very enthusiastic three-year-old named Taylor. The thing she said the most, usually as she was jumping at me? "I want to do it all by myself!!! Will you help me?"
And the summer before college I worked in a childcare center. There was a three-year-old there who called me her sister. She'd run into the room, yell, "Heeeeey sister! Can't catch me!" and proceed to run into the play structure. She called her brother her boy. Typical exchange? me: "Hey Sophia, where's William today?" her: "My boy go swimmin'!"
I miss those little girls!
There were also the six-year-olds, who would ask me where my kid was, and why my kid wasn't there in childcare. I was pretty amused by that.
Posts: 3801 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Mooselet, as usual, charmed everyone at the hospital on Wednesday. The anesthesiologist came in to give Mooselet the "calming" drug before taking him into surgery. The nurse had put a bunch of toys on the bed which Mooselet was playing with. The doc joined him in play (the nurses thought the doc was having more fun playing than Mooselet was). Mooselet was being really quiet. We were trying to get him to talk. We asked him to sneeze, but he wouldn't do it. We asked him to cough, but he wouldn't do it. The doc covered his mouth and coughed. Mooselet looked up at him and said "Bless you, Doctor." It took me a few seconds to figure out what he had said (it wasn't as clear as I wrote it). It was much cuter the way he said it, but I don't know how to write what he actually said. I told everyone what he said and we all laughed. Pop and I had never heard Mooselet say bless you before.
Posts: 399 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I was working at a resident (over-night) camp this summer, and one week we had a particularly odd group. When you read this, keep in mind that it is an all girls camp, and thus all of the counselors (including me, duh) are female. These kids decided that one counselor was Mommy, I was Daddy, one was Auntie Bob, there was an Uncle Sandy, and a Great Grandma Steve. They continued this until they wanted us to give them the candy their parents had sent them and we refused to answer to anything but our real names. Though I still like saying "I'll answer to the Julie, the whole Julie, and nothing but the Julie." Of course, that caused kids to call me "the Julie," but it was still a huge improvement on "Daddy."
Posts: 981 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I started college this year a long way from home, and my six-year-old brother misses me. I recently got a letter from him that had a picture of our cat he had drawn for me. The letter read "Hi Sissy, How are you? Here is a picture of Sara I drew so you don't forget what she looks like. I love sissy. Love Thaddeus." It is very cute and written in all capital letters, with a smiley face sticker wearing a santa clause hat. I hung it up next to my desk.
Posts: 349 | Registered: May 2003
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This is a story that my parents have told me. When I was about five I started playing soccer because my best friend played. I joined his team and practiced with them. It was all going well until the first game. The coach put me in, but I refused to play, and just stood on the field away from the action. The coach took me out and asked me why I didn't play. I told him that I couldn't play with the kids on the other team because I didn't know them. Apparently, my parents' lessons about strangers went deeper than they knew.
Posts: 2149 | Registered: Aug 2000
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My nephew is now five or six. Yes, I know I'm a bad aunt for not knowing but my excuse is that he's my cousin's kid. We call him Matthew number two since my brother is Matthew number one. Number two and his brothers call my brother 'number one'.
Anyway, a couple years ago number two had this dance. He'd point his index fingers up and move them up and down while spinning around and saying, "whoo duu duu, whoo duu du, Dippy Dive!"
It was fun. I don't think anyone ever recorded it though. He wouldn't dance for the camera. Now my brother, number one, says he does that when he's bored in water polo. He's the goalkeeper.
Posts: 1056 | Registered: Mar 2002
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My son is five now, and in Kindergarten. They are teaching them good citizenship in Kindergarten, apparently, because today when I yelled at the dog to "Drop it!" (he had a tissue from the trash), Christopher shook his finger at me and said, "Manners, mommy, remember to say thank you."
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My parents (and family photos) tell me that when I was little, my hair would REALLY stick up. And I mean REALLY. Think punk-rocker toddler. Ok, maybe not that bad, but the hair was very fine and wispy. So fine and wispy, in fact, that it tended to get the attention of people. My dad told me once that he was walking down the sidewalk, carrying me. People coming the other way would try to stare at me without staring. You know what I mean? Anyway, they would keep doing the little peeks out of the corner of their eye type of thing. Then, after they would pass my dad, he would quickly turn around and they would be standing there, staring at my hair.
Posts: 1466 | Registered: Jan 2003
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funny story of the day. my sixth-grade kids are doing reports on mathematicians. one of the kids went on and on about how his mathematician was a nerd. I had to tell him, "No, Ed. Your mathematician was Greek, not a geek."
Posts: 134 | Registered: Apr 2003
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My camp has a lot of counselors from other countries, and this generates a lot of questions from the campers. My favorite was when Leanna, a counselor from South Africa, was talking about what her little brothers watch on Nickelodeon. Andrea, one of the kids, looks amazed and asked, "You have TVs in Africa?" (Never mind that we were playing a game Leanna had just taught involving movie titles, which didn't seem odd to Andrea.)
Posts: 981 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Ryan, my four year old nephew, is a big spiderman fan. One day when his mother was attempting to discipline him, Ryan walked to the corner of the room, pulled out an imaginary cell phone and dialed.
"Hello Spiderman, Would you please come and take my mommy and daddy away."
As he hung up the phone, my sister told him she would just call spiderman herself. Ryan told her she couldn't because Spiderman was his friend not hers and would only anwswer the phone for him.
My sister replied, "Well Santa Claus is my friend and I will just have to call him and tell him you have been a bad little boy this year."
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When I was younger my family and I moved to columbus and shared a home with my moms cousin and her child (her husband had just passed due to cancer). Well one day my cousin was making brownies and asked her son if he wanted to lick the bowl. He looked at her a bit confused but didn't want to let his mom down, so he took the bowl from her and started licking the OUTSIDE. When we all stopped laughing she explained to him it was the chocolate on the inside he should lick, he enjoyed it much more that way.
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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We were driving with the family and he would not stop talking about the word "Bum". And no he wasn't talking about a homeless person. Finally fed up, I told him that if he didn't stop that he wasn't going to go to his friend's house tomorrow. His response was, "Oh yeah, tough guy?!"
I totally cracked up. For those of you that don't have kids, it's a direct quote from Woody to Buzz in the movie "Toy Story" and he said it with just the same tone and inflection that Woody does. There was no way I could formulate any sort of disciplined response after hearing that from a 38 pound midget.
Sometimes I think I'm a bad parent for letting him get away with saying things like that to me, but it was just too funny.
Similarly, he is not allowed to say "stupid" and whenever it comes up in a movie he says "we don't say that word". Also, if my wife or I say it or "Butt", he is Johnny-on-the-spot and tells us we don't say that word, then he asks, "Do you need a time out?"
Usually I say "Yes, Please", but he is the most forgiving boy and just says, "That's ok, just don't say it again". Most of the time I wish I could get sent away for a few minutes, but he always forgives.
Also, Annie, this same boy tried Skadooing into a book after watching an episode of Blue's Clues which is much safer than running into the tv, but only slightly less sad since he burst into tears when he realized it wouldn't work. We had to explain that there are certain magical things that only work on TV.
Here are a couple more stories that I gathered several months ago from a similar thread I started in another message board I frequent:
(remember these aren't about me or my kids, just fellow posters)
1. When my wife was pregnant with our last child, about 3 years ago. We were saying family prayer with my two daughters. My oldest who was 4 at the time was saying the prayer, when she came out with "and Heavenly Father, please let Dad know that this baby is his" I have no clue where that came from. I had some serious questions for the wife after that one.
2. When my 6 yr old was 4, we were in Target and he was playing with his Woody doll (Toy Story), and he kept making the one year old cry with it. I told him to stop or I'd take away Woody. Of course he didn't stop, I took away Woody. All of a sudden he bursts our crying....
"DAD, LET GO OF MY WOODY!"
I had to hold the doll up and explain to all the soccer moms around that I was just discipling him, by taking away his doll...nothing else.
Posts: 995 | Registered: May 2003
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This happened about 3 years ago, when my own children were 2 and 3. We lived in Florida, and I had a home daycare. One of the children I kept was an adorable 4 year old girl, "R".
One afternoon, R's mother came to retrieve her. (Usually, one of the child's grandparents did the honors.) I heard the car pull up, and, as all the kids were down for their naps, I had the door open before she got to it.
The first thing she said to me was, "WHAT have you been teaching my daughter?!"
Flabberghasted, I blinked a few times. What had the dear child done?
"Yesterday, I told R 'Thank you' for bringing me a soda when I asked her for it. Then, she says, 'Thank you for using your good manners, Mommy. It's nice to use good manners.'"
quote: she smacked her head pretty hard, and I had a very difficult time not laughing.
That's awful! I'll have to watch my sister when she watches Blues Clues, in case she gets any ideas. I always watch Blues Clues with her any way. It's my favourite kid show.
EDIT: Seems like this Skidooing phenomenon is quite common!!! We should sue.
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There was a show on in the late eighties called Zooblie Zoo where all these actors were dressed up in animal costumes and were from some strange land. It sort of had a Mr. Roger's Neighborhood feel. My four year old sister loved that show and it began with a song that asked the kids to come follow the path to the land of Zooblie Zoo. She cried and cried when mom had to tell her that she couldn't really follow the path.
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
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My good friend's little brother is 9 and extremely precocious and very dramatic, so we were trying to convince him to audition for a local community theatre production of "Peter Pan." as a lost boy.
He shook his head, and very solemnly explained why he couldn't:
"I don't want to be a lost boy, because if I never grow up then I can't go to law school."
Posts: 3516 | Registered: Sep 2002
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this is an appropriate story for the season:
Two years ago the grocery store I work in had their annual custome contest. Those who wanted to participate had to wear one to work and work in it. I was closing that nite with Dina and Tina. I dressed up as a devil (complete with vinyl dress and horns ) and Tina dressed up as a cat. Dina was a stinky-poo and didn't dress up
Later in the evening, it was just us three and a woman came up to our counter with her little 2 year old girl who had just finished trick or treating. Dina, as she is with all children, started baby-talking to her and asking her what her costume was
The little girl said 'i'm a princess' and then she got this mean-pouty kind of face and said real serious "WHERE"S YOUR COSTUME!"
Me and Tina were rolling Dina wasn't too happy
Posts: 463 | Registered: Oct 2003
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