Bad Influence

You know how you always hear about the way kids at school influence your kids?  They pick up things that they might say or do.  That totally happens.  Not an old wives tale at all.  Here's how I know.

Last weekend we were all sitting having dinner together one night.  Andy was joking around or saying something that the girls didn't want to hear.  There were rounds of,

"Daaaadddy!  Stop!"

I wish I could tell you what it was he said, but this is our life on a daily basis and he's always joking around, so who knows.  Finally, Georgia decided to try to make him stop using different words.

"Hey!" She said looking at him.  "Shthut your pie hole!!"

Now I know this is where we, as parents, are supposed to be stern and menacing and punish her for speaking to her father in such a manner.  Except you weren't there and you have NO idea how hysterical it is to hear your four year old, in her little voice, tell someone to shut their pie hole.  So instead of disciplining, Andy and I did exactly what we are NOT supposed to do and laughed our asses off.  We did make it clear, between the giggles, that it was not a good thing she said to him and that even though this time we were laughing, next time we would not be.  If she said that to one of us again, it would mean trouble for her.  She seemed to get it.

Then it occurred to me, where did she hear such a phrase?  It's certainly not something Andy or I say. Even though the girls watch TV sometimes, nothing we let them watch would have a phrase like that.  That is, unless I haven't been watching "Sid The Science Kid" closely enough.  So I asked her where she heard it and Sonya answered for her.

"From Joey."

Apparently, this is a favorite phrase of Sonya's former crush at school and she has said it to her sisters a number of times.  They in turn have picked it up themselves, and Georgia decided to try it out on us.  Or more specifically, her father.

So yes, that thing your kid is doing or saying that you have no idea where it came from, most likely it came from the boy who fancies himself the class clown at school or the girl who has a sister five years older.  Yup, they pick things up from kids at school.  True story.