Is it just me?
Remember when you were a kid, and you thought all grown-ups were daft? Trying to explain the nuances of Nirvana to your grandma was like pulling teeth. Except grandma didn't have any teeth. Ewww…
Anyway, I was thinking about generation gaps today as my three year old flung angry gibberish at me when I turned off the Dora computer game.
"Ok, A~ time's up. Let's turn it off."
"But Mommy! It's just flink prooger duk!"
"Um… what?"
"You stlink flurger me!"
"You seem angry right now."
"Elgerstadt!"
Is this some new 'hip' form of communication that I’m not in on? Are kids just born knowing the next generation of slang that parents never understand? I'm trying to remember what my mom said to me the day I came home from school and said "Yo, mom this meatloaf is friggin phat. Sike, it's major suckage!" She probably just gave me the same strange look I gave her when she said things like "I remember back when your dad asked me to go steady. We had such a gas!"
It's not just when she's angry that A~ comes up with baffling combinations of letters. All of her toys have ever-changing complicated names. Sitting next to the computer right now is a filthy My Little Pony whose hair has been cut off. I’m going to go ask her what its name is.
Ok, she said "Geeya Brah." Am I missing something here? Perhaps she's speaking the secret language of preschoolers, which they will use to communicate with each other to plan an uprising against us.
I figure that I have two options. I can pretend I don’t hear her, thereby grooming her in the ways and language of civilized society, or I can jump in and try to talk to her on her level. If she says, "Mommy! The sliggen barg is ilkenish!" I can respond matter-of-factly with "Well, you shouldn’t have flungett struk it. You know how it hates that." My only hesitation with option the second is if she IS really speaking a secret language, she'll know I'm faking it. It's like when you meow at a cat and they give you that look of sheer hatred. They know you're not a cat. You're just an idiot.
Anyway, I was thinking about generation gaps today as my three year old flung angry gibberish at me when I turned off the Dora computer game.
"Ok, A~ time's up. Let's turn it off."
"But Mommy! It's just flink prooger duk!"
"Um… what?"
"You stlink flurger me!"
"You seem angry right now."
"Elgerstadt!"
Is this some new 'hip' form of communication that I’m not in on? Are kids just born knowing the next generation of slang that parents never understand? I'm trying to remember what my mom said to me the day I came home from school and said "Yo, mom this meatloaf is friggin phat. Sike, it's major suckage!" She probably just gave me the same strange look I gave her when she said things like "I remember back when your dad asked me to go steady. We had such a gas!"
It's not just when she's angry that A~ comes up with baffling combinations of letters. All of her toys have ever-changing complicated names. Sitting next to the computer right now is a filthy My Little Pony whose hair has been cut off. I’m going to go ask her what its name is.
Ok, she said "Geeya Brah." Am I missing something here? Perhaps she's speaking the secret language of preschoolers, which they will use to communicate with each other to plan an uprising against us.
I figure that I have two options. I can pretend I don’t hear her, thereby grooming her in the ways and language of civilized society, or I can jump in and try to talk to her on her level. If she says, "Mommy! The sliggen barg is ilkenish!" I can respond matter-of-factly with "Well, you shouldn’t have flungett struk it. You know how it hates that." My only hesitation with option the second is if she IS really speaking a secret language, she'll know I'm faking it. It's like when you meow at a cat and they give you that look of sheer hatred. They know you're not a cat. You're just an idiot.
June 21, 2005