Recently I shared with my Facebook pals, a conversation I had with my 5-year old. I was on the computer ordering gymnastics leotards for his sister, and he asked me if I could get him a new pair of pants.
“Sure buddy, what kind of pants?”
“They are blue and they have yellow stripes on the side.”
Me – pulling up athletic pants with a side stripe: “Like this?”
“No! Not like that! They’re blue with a yellow stripe on the side.”
Me, looking at the Adidas pants my husband is wearing: “Like that?”
“NO! They’re BLUE with YELLOW STRIPES on the side! They go line, space, line space.”
Me: “…”
“You have a pair JUST LIKE IT!”
Me: “…”
“And they have pockets! I know because I put something in the pocket one day when you were wearing them!”
Just as we were about to go raid my closet, he had me scroll up…to the jeans. He wanted jeans. The gold/yellow stitching on the side is what he was referring to!
In case you’re wondering how my 5-year old didn’t know what jeans were, he hasn’t worn them since he was about two. He has weird sensory issues and tends to be very picky about his clothing. He has about 4 types of pants in many colors, and I stockpile them! He’s been wearing the same pants (new sizes of course) since he was about 18 months old, ha! We also nixed any pants with fasteners around the time he started using the potty full time (P.S. very excited about this Kickstarter for jeans with a magnetic closure), and we just never bothered trying to get him in jeans again! Mystery solved. And then…
I took my daughter out to the craft store to look for materials for a school project and the boys stayed home with my husband. When I came through the door, the following conversation occurred.
“There was a guy with funny glasses because some guy shot him!”
Me: “Um…”
“Yeah he had funny glasses but he’s died now because a crazy guy shot him.”
Me: “Who told you this?”
“Daddy told me about him.”
Me: “What was his name?”
“Well Daddy didn’t really know but I was a little scared.”
Me: (thinking what in the world have they been talking about?)
“But Daddy said the crazy guy is in jail now.”
Me: “…”
My husband comes downstairs and picks up the following picture my son drew of me.
My husband remarked that I looked like I was wearing “John Lennon glasses” which led to a conversation about John Lennon. I wasn’t there to hear exactly what was said but apparently it was something like:
“Who is that?”
“He was a musician.”
“Can I see him?”
“Well he isn’t alive anymore.”
“Why not?”
…and so on.
I doubt my husband jumped right to “some crazy guy shot him” but that’s pretty much what my son got out of a discussion about the Beatles (one of their song titles is his namesake & he’s seen photos/videos before!)
I’m usually pretty good at figuring out what random, odd thing my kids are talking about, but I just couldn’t figure out the jeans! The John Lennon discussion is a good cautionary tale to be very careful about what you say and how you say it!
Have you had any funny conversations with your little ones lately?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
I am laughing so hard because I am a huge Beatles fan too, and as soon as I heard your son’s description of a guy with glasses who was shot, I immediately thought “Oh, sounds like he is talking about John Lennon.” Haha.
LOL, I wish you had been here because I was baffled!!
Hahaha, those kinds of stories are the BEST! I’m glad you documented them for future reference 😉 I can’t think of anything recent, but when my son was younger he used predominantly sign language and for a while his sign for “juice” looked like he was making his fingers into little guns. It took me a WHILE to figure out what he wanted, and then every time he’d do it I’d have to stop and go, “Okay, wait, we’ve done this before. Guns means …. JUICE! YOU WANT JUICE!” 😉
That’s so funny! That reminds me of the other day when my 2 year old was asking for “cheetos” and I had to tell my husband he meant Cheerios!!