My first son, who is now 5 years old, inherited my gift of gab. He used sign language as soon as physically possible, said his 1st real word (“duck”) around 12 months old, had a ton of partial words by 15 months old, and by 18 months old, could pretty much say anything he wished.
Those who’ve met him will confirm that he is a talker. A BIG talker. One of his nightly wind-down rituals is “chat time,” which he created. Instead of watching TV or playing a game, he prefers to spend some time each night having a discussion of the topic of his choice with one of his parents over a snack. These topics tend to revolve around science, engineering or vehicles, with an emphasis on learning every itty bitty little detail possible on the selected subject.
The boy loves conversation, and as I watch old home videos of when he and I were first at home together, it’s no wonder. In these home movies, I am talking constantly…non-stop…to my baby. I couldn’t downshift my loquacious ways, so it’s no wonder that he can’t either.
As he has grown older and savvier, one of the byproducts of all this talk is that he has developed the ability to mirror my own speech patterns. He is especially good at framing his concerns in my style when most upset. “Mom…I am really mad, and I’m going to tell you why. One, you wouldn’t let me have that toy. Two, you kept interrupting me when I was upset and crying about it. Three….” …and so on.
Once when I asked him to stop kicking the window, his response was, “I’m waiting for a ‘please’.” It’s truly fascinating to learn about your own way of speaking through what your children say back to you.
In addition to using my own words against me, he has come up with some real zingers over his first 5 years. What I mean is that he has produced some belly laugh inducing comebacks delivered with superb comedic timing. Here, I list for you the top 5 best comebacks my kid has said to me thus far:
#5) Once when we were outside, I was trying desperately to open a particularly tricky package of graham crackers, to the point of pulling so hard I thought I would spray them across the driveway. I said to my son, “Almost there.” My son, while shaking his head, said to me, “Mom, I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”
#4) Helping my son prepare to leave for preschool one morning, I was down on my knees adjusting his coat. I asked him if he was ready to go. He said in a matter of fact tone, “Mom, I’m going to go to school today, and I am going to go berserk.” In unison, my husband and I responded, “Please don’t.” (For the record, he lived up to his statement and then some that day).
#3) We had been coming back from a fun but exhausting sledding trip, and all my husband and I wanted was a little down time to listen to music and look at the snowy mountains on our drive home. My son could not stop jabbering away and asking questions. When we asked if we could just have a few moments of silence, his reply to us was, “Give me a break, guys. Sometimes I just need to talk to myself.”
#2) When our second son was clearly on the verge of crawling, my older son and I had the following exchange:
Son: “The baby is going to crawl soon.”
Me: “Yes. You are going to have to do a better job of putting away your toys so he can’t get at them.”
Son: “Or we can create a baby exhibit.”
Me: ”A what?”
Son : ” We can gate him in his room and watch him from the other side.”
#1) My son’s best comeback was more of a total verbal set up that I walked into. We were eating dinner one night, and I was exhausted and not really engaged in the conversation.
Son: “Mom, why are avocados green?”
Me: “I don’t know. I guess that’s just how nature made them.”
Son: “No. Actually, it’s because you only see the green light waves reflecting off of them.”
I don’t want to be so trite as to say kids say the darndest things, but the truth is that kids do say the darndest things! They have that amazing ability to make you laugh, even when you are trying desperately to be stern. They engage you when you are least expecting it. And, they hold up a verbal mirror that lets you see just how you really do sound.
I love that my son is super talkative, even though he puts my endurance for conversation to the test (and that’s saying something… believe me). I look forward to many more years of “chat times”, debates, conversation winning comebacks, and hilarity.
What are some of the best comebacks your little ones have lobbed at you? What things have you learned about your own way of speaking through what your children have said?
This has been an original post to World Moms Blog by Tara B. of Washington (State) USA.
Photo credit to the author.
Our two oldest sons are also highly articulate and happy to share their opinions. I often have to remind myself we need more articulate men in the world. sigh.
“It’s truly fascinating to learn about your own way of speaking through what your children say back to you.”
This sentence of yours said it all for me, Tara! No wonder our mothers’ words and voices suddenly emerge from *our* mouths…
Tara – what wonderful memories this bought back for me. My two oldest boys weren’t big talkers – still aren’t, but what they lacked my youngest more than made up for. He is now 13 and friends says he’s more mature than most adults and some of his topics of conversation astound me.
He is very perceptive and has always picked up on what adults ‘aren’t saying’ – sometimes in the worst places and has always voiced what has been unsaid often to my immense embarassment.
You’re so right when you say ‘kids say the darndest things’
Hearing big girl mirror my language has been amazing. When uses phrases like “almost” or “hey” or “actually” I listen to myself and husband speak more to see where she is getting it from – usually myself. I love that your son has “chat time” – what a nice way to end the day and empty your mind 🙂 My husband and I actually do this every night but we never labeled it 🙂
This post made me laugh so hard!! What a great little guy!!!!!
I have a big talker, too and we love it!!!
Your son sounds like my James, who is also five. Once he gets going, you can’t get a word in edgewise. Reading him stories is too funny, because he keeps interrupting to launch into an explanation of something-or-other in the story. And yes, he does mirror my speech. One of his best comebacks happened when I was making a joke about my mother-in-law, and he very sternly said, “Don’t make fun of Granny! She’s an old lady!”
Kirsten
Love this post Tara! And the way you’ve captured your funny comeback kid. My daughter is more talkative than my son and often brings home new words from school and copies us too (telling me once that she didn’t like my behavior!) My son sometimes ignores her when she’s jabbering away at him…one day I explained that she didn’t need to scream to get him to listen to her. To which she replied “I’m NOT screaming Mom, I’m shouting!”
Your son and my 5-year-old daughter sound like two peas in a pod! We joke that our daughter talks enough tongue for 10 sets of teeth!
Thanks for your comments, everyone. I love hearing your stories as well! It’s so fun to see our little ones develop their own personalities while also mirroring parts of ours. My son is a blast. He is intense and exhausting at times, but a blast! I just need to keep trying to write these memories down so I can retell them to him someday.
Tara,
I love how you hear yourself through your child’s words! So true!! And, my favorite was the “baby exhibit” — hysterical!!
I hear a lot of myself in my 3 year old daughter. Lately, she’s been saying “I can’t believe it!”. I didn’t realize that I say that a lot!
But, I always know when she’s been hanging out with her English grandma because she calls our backyard a “garden” and picks up other vocabulary that we normally don’t say over here!
Veronica 🙂
I love The Baby Exhibit. Fantastic.
My friend recently got her warning-we-are-leaving-soon-tone of “1 more minute!” repeated back to her by her son as “1 more book!” at bedtime.
So cute!
I think sometime we should hold a WMB conference somewhere in the world (maybe up here in Boston ;o) and your, Courtney’s and my five-year-olds should all be the MCs. Coincidentally, my daughter’s first word also was “duck” (at about 12 months). The flood gates never closed behind it. Her ability to debate situations ad delegate tasks to her small peer group both pleases and concerns me. Sometimes, I don’t know if I’m raising a leader or a despot. Today, for example, she explained that she was frustrated because no one in her family (specifically her dad and mom) ever let her finish what she was trying to say (if it hadn’t come out as back-talk, I’m sure we would have been more compliant). I told her that she needed to better understand her place in our family and in the world, who she could speak on-level with and who she needed to show reverence to. Immediately she turned on her 2 yea old brother and started bossing him around. Her closing sentence was: “P, I’m older than you and you need to respect my words. I expect you to pick up the toys you took out and go wash your hands pronto…” Dear God…
What amazing little assertive people we have, growing muses! Your story reminds me so much of my son. I too want to support the strengths that come with his personality but also teach him how to be respectful and speak appropriately to his target audience. Another funny story – I had a big talk with him b/c when he plays with a neighbor boy who is a year older, he gets super emotional and frustrated when he can’t “win” races, tag, etc. This boy is just faster, and I tried explaining to my son that he will win some and lose some. I explained how each kid has his own strengths, and his friend is just faster right now. It’s ok that my son can’t beat him in a race, because there are things that my son is really good at. “Like what, Mom?” I told him he is so smart and really good with words. His response to my coaching? “So…what I need to do…is trick him somehow. Think of something to say to him to trick him into losing.” Oh well….he’s gonna do some great stuff in life 😉
This was great – and I LOVED the baby exhibit – too funny! It’s true, kids say the darndest things.
Sometimes what my 4 yo says cracks me up because she uses words that aren’t part of her regular vocabulary. One that I recently remember (I should really start writing this stuff down) was after I got pulled over on I-5 for crossing two lanes at once to get off on an exit. I was so mad! The cop was a jerk, but since I have no driving record, he let me off with a warning. As I was putting my license away, my daughter said “Mommy, I think Daddy is going to amused that we got pulled over by the police…and a little surprised.” She cracked me up and made me forget how angry I was about the whole thing.