Beta Mum's Blog Beta Mum on 12 Nov 2007 12:39 pm
Chinese Whispers
One of Hannah’s friends has been dispersing little nuggets of wisdom which I thought I would share with you.
But do bear in mind that these words of advice have been filtered by the brains and mouths of two six-year olds, so there’s double the room for error.
First, from the original information.
Second, from Hannah’s Chinese Whispers reporting style.
But here goes anyway.
tomatoes stop you getting cancer
An obvious ploy by the parents to get their child to eat them.
Hannah was having none of it.
Mind you, I say the same thing about broccoli.
bullies don’t have to be fat, they can be thin too
How true.
In my experience, the fatter the child the more likely s/he is to be on the other end of the bullying spectrum.
chocolate makes you fat
Also true, but I perfer to bang on about healthy eating rather than fat -v- thin, for fear of possible future teenaged body-shape traumas
she says when I’m older I’m going to be this fat
Hm, it seems to me that this friend is over-concerned about body-size.
I resolve to focus even more strongly on health and not shape.
she says my new glasses don’t suit me
Frantic denial and pooh-poohing ensues here, with enforced back-up from big brother Ben, who later demands a reward for his efforts.
metres are bigger than miles
I have some sympathy with this misconception, as how on earth are today’s children going to know how long a mile is when they’re taught only the metric system, and know nothing of yards, which are the building blocks of miles?
Mike and I do our best to confuse our two by talking to them in inches, yards and furlongs, while simultaneously going cross-eyed when they ask us to estimate distances in metres.
In case you’re young, I may need to tell you that 1760 yards = 1 mile.
on 13 Nov 2007 at 12:06 am 1.mid-lifer said …
I’d like to say something witty, pithy or even add my own examples, but as I have just consumed a barrel-load of wine (and only in response to the first sign of stress) I’ll just say awwwwwwwwww, that’s soo cute!…but what’s all this about being fat??
on 13 Nov 2007 at 12:44 pm 2.Stay at home dad said …
And how many furlongs?
The one I like is that the darker the fruit (vegetable?) the better it is for you. Blackberries over melon anyday.
on 15 Nov 2007 at 10:33 am 3.lady macleod said …
I LOVE the photograph! That’s one of our jobs as parents eh? to fill in the blanks left by school. At my daughter’s school the teacher spent TWENTY MINUTES on world religions. My daughter said, “Would you like my mother to come in and speak? She will and she knows a lot about this.”
“Oh no dear, thank you, but we’re all done.”
Yikes! That paired with her statement, “You know mum teachers don’t like it when you ask them questions they don’t know the answers to.” had me deeply involved in her studies from that point.
on 15 Nov 2007 at 11:00 am 4.Beta Mum said …
mid - “fat” is not a word I generally use, but the children have picked it up elsewhere. They generally use it to describe my stomach, but as I say to them - it’s not a bad stomach for a woman of my age!
SAHD - I must get Mike to read your blog as he’ll shortly be a SAHD. I think he’s looking forward to it, but is also feeling fear and trepidation. As both our children are at school, it’s hardly as onerous as your task.
Lady - I’m always asking teachers things they can’t answer - keeps them on their toes. I also like to put comments on any homework with unintelligible instructions. I’m probably a real pain to have as a parent.
on 15 Nov 2007 at 11:12 am 5.Mopsa said …
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/newsarchive/2007/january/18034609
even the scientists don’t seem to know!