Why? Because our kids, especially the young ones that haven't quite worked out the filtering system that our brain provides, say what they think in English......out loud......in front of people. Why? Because they are used to being able to speak to us in English in public and hardly anyone will understand. We actually try not to speak too loudly in English while we are public here but sometimes things just come out.
Why do I share all of this?
Yesterday was one of those times. We had another 90 degree/100 degree heat index day so we took the kids to the pool.
Anderson and I were playing in the pool and he noticed a man playing with his child. They were fairly close to us. Anderson then announced the following:
"Hey dad look at that guy. He has an upside down oval shaped head with big ears and a gigantic nose."
Wonderful.
Like I said, the filtering system hasn't yet fully developed in this 5 year old.
Benay came over with Giovanni. I told her what Anderson said. She looked at the man and began to crack up in the pool. I then began to tell Anderson to not say things like that because (even if they were true......okay Benay and I both agreed that the guy actually did have an upside down oval shaped head) it could really hurt his feelings if he heard Anderson say it.
No worries for Anderson. He told me, "Don't worry dad, he doesn't speak English."
As I type this it makes me realize that the non-filter is universal in 5 year olds.
When Garrett was 5 we went to an airport to pick up Sascha (our teammate). At that time Garrett was fascinated by different sized people. Especially, let's say.....small people. And even the size difference between the small people intrigued him. Anyway, back to the airport. As we waited and the people started getting off the plane, a man walked by. I would say he was about 4'10".
I should've known that my son was processing. I didn't. As this older man got right beside us my 5 year old son loudly proclaimed:
"Hey look dad, there's a medium sized grandpa."
Yesterday we at least had lots of people splashing in the water making noise and the high probability that if this guy heard Anderson he didn't understand. That night at the airport we had no such luxuries as this "medium sized grandpa" passed by in the quiet airport.
I believe I shrunk to his size (no offense) with embarrassment as I began to explain to my son why we don't say things like that. At least not outside of our mind.
It can be embarrassing at times but I wouldn't trade being the dad of a 5 year old for anything.
1 comment:
Bran, your arguments for Esperanto would be a lot more compelling if you didn't just Google the phrase "everyone speaks English" and then troll blogs that aren't in any way claiming that English is a universal language.
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