# Do you play 'stupid' with your kids? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 17, 2005, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692 "2005-06-17T12:00:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/1 "2005-06-17T12:00:55Z")
I have two kids - a girl aged 9 and a boy aged 6 - and over the years, I’ve found that they really, REALLY like it when I play ‘stupid’ clown games; stuff like: One of them is sitting in the bath, playing absent-mindedly with a floating duck or something; I’m sitting on the (closed) lid of the toilet and I take off one of my carpet slippers and hold it to my ear like a telephone handset - I then mock my side of an imaginary conversation. Before long, the kid looks up and starts trying to tell me it’s a shoe, not a phone, but I’ll keep cutting them short, saying please would they be quiet when I’m making an important call (maybe also doing the Dr Evil ‘zip’ or the Ruby Rod ‘ZZZzzZZZ’ thing); eventually, the whole thing builds to a crescendo and I let them finish the sentence; “DAD! look at it! It’s a SHOE!”. I nonchalantly look at the shoe, then jump and exclaim in mock surprise, throwing the shoe into the air. Fits of laughter. Then I’ll try to put my slipper back on my foot, but the wrong awy around; they’ll shout 'no, no! turn it round! - the _other_ way!". I dutifully rotate the slipper, but the wrong way or on the wrong axis and continue to fruitlessly try to put it back on - their instructions get more and more urgent and detailed, to no avail. They love it. Or there’s the wilful misunderstanding; “Look dad, elephants!”/“What? Where? I can’t see them - Ohhh, they must be behind _those big animals_ over there” Or the non-sequitur/nonsense word; we have a number of favourite words (such as ‘bean’, ‘pie’, ‘cake’), plus a non-existent one - the favourite at the moment - ‘snid’. The trick here is to insert one of these words into a real-world context without any warning at all, for example, we were at the beach the other day and there was a lot of pointing and showing of shells, seaweed, a dead cuttlefish, rocks, etc. After a while, I called them over to me, shouting excitedly “Hey, have a look at this!”; as they ran over to look, I shielded the indicated area by squatting in front of it with my back turned toward them, so that they had to come right over before they could see that I was pointing at the word ‘snid’, which I had written in the damp sand. Do you play these sort of games with your kids? Or is it just me? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/2 "2005-06-17T12:09:35Z")
Not just you. I play a game with my kids where they want to go to the playground or play a game or something, and I say "So, you want to XYZ? They say yeah, then I say "So, what you’re telling me is you want to XYZ? They giggle and say “Yes, we want to XYZ!” I then say “So, correct me if I’m wrong, but what I think you’re saying is that you want to XYZ. Is that true?” …and so on. ---
**Author:** ![dragongirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@dragongirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragongirl)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/3 "2005-06-17T12:14:13Z")
I play stupid with my kids too. When one of them says “I’m hungry” I’ll respond with “Hi Hungry, it’s nice to meet you. I’m mommy.” Sometimes I’ll do very uncharastic things like toss a strawberry across the room at my son and it hits his head or I’ll make up silly lyrics to some of their favorite pop songs. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/4 "2005-06-17T12:17:41Z")
Kids love it when you play that way. I did it when my daughter was small, and she was always delighted to correct me. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/5 "2005-06-17T13:37:33Z")
Hell I do that now and I don’t have kids. I’ll be totally nuts then when I do have kids. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/6 "2005-06-17T14:01:47Z")
My three-year-old is taking a “science” class at the local nature center, where they go on hikes and examine animal poop and stuff like that. I’ve been telling him about Sasquatch for the past few days and suggesting that he ask his teacher about it, but he’s not going for it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/7 "2005-06-17T14:14:43Z")
When the boy and I were young my father would forget how to say “floor,” especially on long car trips. Here is a sample transcript: > [@](#): > > Dad: Hey kids, you know how I can’t say floor? I think I’m getting better at it, listen–_fleer! floom! flur! flom! boor!_ Well, gosh, I guess I’m still having trouble with saying floor! > Madly giggling kids: Daaaaaad! You just said it! > Dad: No, I didn’t say floor! Weren’t you listening? Here, listen–_floop! flume! flee! flom!_ > Kids: HAHAHAHAHHAH!!! You just said it again! > Etc. The man _can’t wait_ for grandkids. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/8 "2005-06-17T14:18:38Z")
My kids love the ridiculous, too! Me too! When I get their bath ready, I throw in all the play food and tell them “Your soup, um, er, bath, yeah bath, is ready!” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/9 "2005-06-17T14:21:25Z")
OOH! Also! My Aunt was about 24 when the boy was learning to talk. So she tried to teach him what the animals said: > [@](#): > > Aunt: Now, what does the cow say? > Boy: Moooooooo! > Aunt: What does the birdie say? > Boy: Peep! Peep! Peep! > Aunt: What does the dinosaur say? > Boy: Raaaaaaawwwwrrrr!!! > Aunt: What does the raccoon say? > Boy: 😕 > Aunt: He says (bunching up her hands by her face and sticking out her teeth in classic “rodent” style) “I’m a raccoon! I’m a raccoon! I’m a racoon!” > Boy: :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/10 "2005-06-17T14:28:48Z")
Another one is to pretend you’ve forgotten who they are; “…and would you like some potatoes… I’m sorry… what’s your name again?”, then when they answer with their name… “\ really nice to meet you! and where do you live?..” etc… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/11 "2005-06-17T14:32:38Z")
…or the interrupting cow joke: Parent: Knock knock Kid: Who’s there P: The interrupting cow! K: The interrupt… P: \ MOO! Parent: Knock knock Kid: Who’s there P: The interrupting tortoise! K: The interrupt… ing… tortoise _who_? P: \ K: \ P: \…\… \ ---
**Author:** ![velvetjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f9b8f/32.png) [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/12 "2005-06-17T14:48:06Z")
My husband and I do this kind of stuff all the time. Not with the kids, with each other (his kids are grown and on their own, my daugheter’s 18 and almost never around). We are some extremely silly middle aged people but we have lots of fun when we’re together. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/13 "2005-06-17T15:42:09Z")
My kids are teenagers who roll their eyes whenever I act goofy, which according to them, is always. But when my daughters were little I would lay in their bed with them at night and read a story. It was the same intro every night. I would lay between them on the bed . Daughter One would hand me a book. I would open the book upside down and then claim that I could not read a backward-upside-down book. I would then turn to daughter One and ask her why we seem to have these upside-down books and who could possibly read such a thing? While I was talking to daughter One, daughter Two would take the book out of my hands, turn it around, and put it back into my hands. I would then look back at my hands and be amazed to discover that I now had a forward-right-side-up book. This ritual was so important that they kept track of who handed the book the last time and who flipped the book the last time. Both of them wanted the coveted position of being the sneaky book flipper. ---
**Author:** ![grayhairedmomma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/47e85d/32.png) [@grayhairedmomma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grayhairedmomma)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/14 "2005-06-17T16:22:05Z")
My lovely daughter (who I just complained about in another thread) loves, loves, loves when I play “stupid/silly” with her. We do pretty much everything mentioned in the thread except the upside down book which sounds like fun - I’ll have to try that. Due to repeated viewings of the [The Animal Planet’s show “The Most Extreme”](http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/mostextreme/episode/episode_01.html), I’m recently “concerned” that she be sure that any guy she “like likes” is not an insect and doesn’t want to become one. Sometimes I “forget” that I have kids. I’ll be doing something in the kitchen and come out into the living room and be surprised that she’s there. Sigh. Kids sure can be a lot of fun when they’re not being a pain in the neck. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/15 "2005-06-17T16:31:43Z")
_Play_ ‘stupid’? You’d better ask **elfbabe**. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/16 "2005-06-17T16:57:57Z")
Sure. Bricker Jr. just recently learned the days of the week; he’s now always announcing what day it is, what day tomorrow will be, and so forth. So sometimes I’ll get goofy: Jr: And tomorrow is Saturday! Me: Right! Today is Friday, and that means tomorrow is Saturday. And the day after is Blurgsday! Jr: No! Sunday! Me: Are you sure? Doesn’t it go Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Blurgsday? Jr: No, Daddy! Thursday, Friday, Saturday, SUNDAY! Me: Ohhhh. OK. Sunday. Now I remember. Jr: (a pause) Do “Blurgsday” pretend again, Daddy. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/17 "2005-06-17T18:04:59Z")
My now grown-up daughters remember two of my silliest things, both of which happened at the dinner table. One of them, while talking, was gesturing with her fork, which happened to have a green bean on the tines, and of course the vegetable slipped off and landed on my side of the table. “Hey!” I responded. “Don’t you throw beans at me!” At which point I threw another bean back at her. After a couple more bean exchanges, we graduated to meatballs. The other kid was joining in, as Daddy sputtered in bewildered astonishment. Another time, feeling whimsical, I constructed a log cabin out of my asparagus spears, with a piece of chicken skin for a roof. I would have continued with mashed potato bushes, but the structure collapsed. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/18 "2005-06-17T18:21:00Z")
We don’t have kids and never plan to, so I have to settle for annoying my SO (who is a kid at heart). Her: “Shit!” Me: “Not in here! Go in the bathroom.” Her: “Can I ask you a question?” Me: “You just did.” Her: “I’m sleepy.” Me: “Aren’t you a little tall for a Dwarf?” Her: “Hey!” Me: “Bee!” Her: “Can you do something for me?” Me: “_Si_.” Her: “Hey!” Me: “Bee!” Her: “No, that other thing.” Me: “What other thing?” Her: “You know…” Me: “Oh, you mean ‘A buh buh bay buh buh bum bum bay’?” ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/19 "2005-06-17T18:23:54Z")
These are all great–I would like to meet each and every one of you. IMO, an appetite for silliness is an excellent thing in a person. Lord knows the world needs more of it. I use silly voices and make the cat say things that would be quite rude and obnoxious if spoken by a human. Sometimes the cat says these things in German (what I can remember) and the kids insist on the translation. I also like to do exagerrated accents–I’ll put on a French one for grocery shopping and a Russian one for chores etc. the older kids roll their eyes, but my 7 year old eats it up. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692/20 "2005-06-17T18:52:30Z")
I don’t have any kids yet, but my friend’s baby seems to like it when I wrap my hand around his face and make squid noises. I also have this neat trick saved up where I can cut a sandwich in half while making it appear whole. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-stupid-with-your-kids/308692.md?page=2)