Does This Phrase Sound Familiar To You?

Every so often (i.e. at least once a day), Julian develops an attachment to a word, phrase, or song he hears. He says it/sings it for awhile and it either evaporates from his memory or gets put into his repertoire of randomness. I, as his nearly constant companion, usually recognize the origin of the snippet and can generally tell people where it is from. Usually, I find this behavior extremely cute and charming. Usually.

Lately, however, he has been saying a phrase to me, while he is playing, which I can't identify. He will be running around and will come up to me and say, in a very tight, bossy voice:

"You are a not a good mommy. I am going to throw you away and you won't be my mommy again."

While part of me realizes what that looks like in print, it isn't nearly as disturbing when he says this in real life. At first, I'll admit, it threw me for a loop, but now I just go along with it. Sometimes, I point out to him (like the mom in The Runaway Bunny) that I can't actually fit in the garbage can and I wills till be his mommy, whether he likes it or not. Heck, some days, I would love to be able to get out of motherhood so easily. Also, he usually follows up with a gigantic hug and a demand that I play with him, so I am not sure what he thinks he is telling me.

However, I can't help but wondering if he picked this up somewhere and, if so, where? I mean, yes, it is possible that he made this up himself, but it doesn't sound right. It sounds like something he heard, like the phrase "I will eat you up" from Where The Wild Things Are or "I am some kind of genius" from Curious George.

Speaking of brilliant toddlers, who knew they could give IQ tests to toddlers and, more importantly, why would you want to? As far as I am concerned, I don't really want proof that Julian can out-think me because I already feel I am fighting a losing battle most days (and find myself resorting to "because I said so" as a reason more often than I would have ever believed possible).

Question: If I had a t-shirt made that said My Toddler Is In Mensa, do you think people would get the joke? Or do you think they would assume I was serious?

Comments

I think it's a crude joke that is part of their language acquisition process. They think it is funny to say the opposite of what they mean. Like when my 3 yr old says everything (even ice cream) is yucky with a smirk on her face. And she has said she would throw me in the garbage. But she giggles when she says it. I don't know where she got it from. Must be from the collective unconcious.

WRT the MENSA t-shirt: Yeah no one would get the joke.
Anonymous said…
I liked when he defended his behaviour by telling you "I'm not big" and you assured him that no one was accusing him of being big. And again, sorry if I've introduced him to the love of cursing.

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