Kids Say The Funniest Things! I Mean The Cutest Things! Or Is It The Most Meaningful Things?
Over the weekend I was chatting with my son Justin and he said something out of the blue that surprised me. I was impressed with the knowledge he had on a particular subject (considering he is 6 years old). I asked him how he knew that and he responded:
“Dad, you learn something new every day!”
At first I chuckled and then I paused for a few seconds and realized he was right. Fundamentally I actually believe that, but was startled–no actually shocked–that my little guy would say that.
To me kids say the funniest things! I mean the cutest things! Or is it the most meaningful things? To me what Justin said was very meaningful. As you get older, time is important, in fact very important. If it was for sale, all of us would buy some and a lot of it.
Yesterday I learned a few things:
I read an article that my parents gave me and I learned the struggles this person had in achieving success. He overcame a tremendous amount including the fact he didn’t speak English when he first came to the country.
I learned a few new shortcuts in Microsoft Excel. I use Excel often and was playing around with a few commands and figured a few things out.
What did you learn yesterday?
Thanks, Justin, for always giving me something to think about.
I look forward to reading your comments.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:00 am
My 5 year old constantly challenges me to learn (and sometimes re-learn) things I should know. As he procrastinated around bedtime a couple nights ago, he asked me a doozy — “if the earth is constantly spinning, why don’t we fall off?”
In order to explain clearly, I needed to slow down in an effort to provide a cogent response that included gravity, rotational pulls, etc… If I had been speaking with an adult I would’ve taken a few short cuts in my explanation. However, there are no short cuts when speaking to someone whose favorite word is “why?”. Fortunately, this exchange forced me to get my facts straight — or so I hope!
September 17th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Over this past weekend my 7 year old decided she wanted an Ipod. I told her that was fine and also asked her how she intended to pay for it.
She asked me how much the Ipod was and I told her $80. She immediately went to her “stash” (allowance money, partial birthday money, etc. etc) and pulled out exactly $80. I asked her if this is really how she wanted to spend her money, she replied “yes, this is my money and i really really want one”
I then tell her that $80 was not enough, she needed a few more dollars for tax. She asked me what was tax. I told her (well in the best way I could tell a 7 yr old) and she frowned at me.
I asked her what was wrong, she replied - “I am not paying the tax - I can’t drive, I do not get mail, only email and I am just 7 years old, it is not fair”
I paid it…. and also bought her the Ipod, she is such a phenomenal kid.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Dan,
I am sure you got the fact straight - good for you.
jason - that is a classic. I am still laughing and I read your comments 5 minutes ago!
Thanks for your contribution.
Merrill
September 17th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I love children/grandchildren stories - they do make you stop and think. I was swimming with my son-in-law, Russ and grandson, Jacob (2-1/2 years old). Jake was practicing swimming between us and he was doing well - I told Russ it looked like Jake had gotten his confidence back. Jake immediately yelled to his mom - “Grandma says I got my confidence back!” He had a little trouble pronouncing such a big word but he did okay. Russ asked him if he could have some confidence and Jake immediately replied - “No, it is all mine!” We asked him where he kept his confidence and he announced it was in his belly! Let’s hope he keeps that kind of confidence in his life - it will serve him well!
September 17th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Merrill - I may have told you this story already, but I love it!
My grandson, Emmett, then 7, was watching the U.S. Open tennis matches with his mother (my daughter, Janet). One of the players took a fit, smashing his tennis racket onto the court. Emmett intoned, “A good carpenter never blames his tools”.
Now Janet knew that noone even remotely related to either side of the family could pound a nail, except onto a thumb, so she asked Emmett the origin of this bit of wisdom. It seems that at his summer day camp, the fishing instructor (not much action in that sport) took to giving his young charges many words-to-live-by.
Janet was pleased that Emmett remembered the words, but even more pleased that he readily applied them to an appropriate situation.
Why can’t we all be as smart as we were XXXX decades ago???
September 17th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
My boys are now adults, but I still learn something new from them all the time. Recently I learned that my older son can not only attend college, run his own business AND get HIMSELF out of jail when he hasn’t paid his parking tickets!
My younger son made it a point to teach his father and I that it IS possible to pass a Thermodynamics class (ugh and double-ugh) with an “A,” and on the first try!
With children we never stop learning and re-learning!
September 18th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
When my eleven year old son was about five we were vacationing in Ft. Myers Beach with my parents. He was having a particularly bad day; no nap, was getting yelled at by everyone, etc. So my mother and I decided to get him out of the condo for a while. We took him for a trolley ride to the pier. Things didn’t get much better on the trip, he dropped his ice cream cone, didn’t want to walk on the pier because of the birds…As we were waiting for the trolley to take us back to the condo he was standing about ten feet away from us. We both noticed him staring at a women leaning on a pole. Now for those of you that know my son, whatever is in his head comes STRAIGHT out his mouth. He continued to stare, eyeing her up and down. She was smoking a cigarette, flicking the ashes and blowing smoke in our direction. Before we could yank him back to where we were sitting, he said (very loudly), “You smokin son of a b****!!!!!” My mother and I were speechless. Everyone waiting for the trolley busted out laughing (including my Mother and I). The more people laughed the louder he got. Repeating the same sentence over and over. We didn’t know whether to grab him and run or wait for the darn trolley. We waited -pleading with him to stop talking. Finally, the trolley arrived, the lady did not get on the trolley with us, she must have waited for the next one. We could not wait to get back to the condo to get the kid in bed.