Out of the mouths of babes….

My kids, like yours, can say the funniest things.

Emery, the middle child, has recently gotten to be quite the little negotiator.  She has a way of noticing the irony in a situation and pointing it out to us.  I thought I would share some of her latest…

The last day of school before Spring Break, we got a call from Emery. She said she didn’t feel good and wanted to come home. She had called earlier in the week not feeling well, but had stayed so we decided to go ahead and get her.  Of course, when Jason arrived to get her, she was outside the office with her class, smiling and laughing.  We were totally snookered.  Jason went ahead and took her home and began the parental discussion about when to call and being honest.

E: Daddy, I was honest.

Daddy: Emery, you said you were sick.

E: No I didn’t. I told you I didn’t feel good and had a headache.

Technically, she was right! I love how she understands the nuances of our language.

Another day, I had told her to clean up her room and make sure she puts up the things on her dresser that do not belong.

E: Why do I have to clean off my dresser when you have stuff on yours?

I have never wanted to say because I am the mommy and I said so….but I resisted and informed her that I had a lot of other things to keep clean and she is responsible for her room.

Great, she has finally noticed that our words should be followed up by our actions.  Words don’t always matter to her!

I can’t wait til she is a teenager….

Parker may have given me the most embarrassing moment of my parental life today.  She has used the word “fat” a couple of times recently and even asked if she is “fat.”  If you know her, that is not a word that would describe her.  She weighs about 50 pounds soaking wet.  I asked her where she had heard that word.  She didn’t know, but I know she had not heard it from us.  I am very aware to not talk about weight, or feeling fat, or anything close to that around my kids.  We will talk about eating healthy, being strong and how we are all unique and made in the image of God.  Anyways, she used the word again yesterday and after our discussion, I informed her that if she used it again, she would have a consequence.

Fast Forward to today. We are at the zoo and were looking at the meerkats.  There are a lot of people at the zoo today because it was GORGEOUS.

Parker comes up to me and says LOUDLY:

P: Mom, did you see that meerkat?  It is…can I say the F-Word?

Me: (Blood draining from my face as heads whip around to look): No, we don’t use the word FAT (loudly) to describe things.

I then proceeded to avoid eye contact and walk off quickly.

And seriously, how do you have a conversation with your 8 year old about not using the F-word?  I just told her that to some people it means something beside FAT and we don’t need to say it.

Ahhh, the stories we have as parents!

P.S. if you Googled F-word and made it to my blog, welcome- glad you are here.