My daughter thinks I'm a liar

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Last night we’re reading Happy animals or somesuch.

I turn the page.

“What’s that?” I say, pointing to the picture.

“Duckie!” says my daughter.

“That’s sooooo good! Yayyyyy!” I say.

I turn the page.

It goes on fine like that through Cats, Horsies, Mousies, Pup-pups (dogs,) etc.

We get to the page with a bear.

“What’s that?” I ask pointing at the bear.

“Pup-pup!”

“Noooo. Bear. Bear.”

My daughter looks confused and looks back at the page. She studies it.

“Pup-pup.” She says, sure of herself.

“No. Bear. Can you say bear?”

Silence.

“Look,” I say going back a couple of pages to the dog. “What’s that?”

She studies the picture. “Pup-pup?” She says.
“That’s soooo Gooood! Yayyyyy!” We clap our hands.

We go back to the bear.

“What’s that?”

Once again, there’s a pause. Deep thought is occuring. “Pup-pup!”
“No. No. No. Bear. Bear. It’s not a Pup-pup, it’s a bear.”

My daughter looks at me like an idiot. “What’s his problem?” I can hear her thinking. “I know what a fucking Pup-pup looks like. What’s he trying to pull?”

She goes to play with Mommy. I look and forth at the pictures. You know, that’s not a really good picture of a bear. It does kind of look like the dog. How really do you describe the difference between a dog and a bear? Basically they’re the same from a Nursery school standpoint.

Stupid book.

2

I wish Scylla was my dad.

3

Aw, heck, that’s easy. You have dogs, right, so what you need to do, see, is go find you a bear. I suggest an American Black or a Griz’ly. Now once you’ve got the bear of your choice, chain it and the dog together in a pen and fetch your daughter. The difference should be immediately noticable.

Oh!Oh! If you can get a bear cub, that would help show the difference between puppies and cubs. I recommend grabbing a cub when the mother is just out of sight, she won’t mind that way.

4

I’m going through something similar with the duck/goose thing. I know I should let it go, but I’ve got a thing about this (see the Seinfelidan breaskup thread). The poor kid isn’t even two, and I’m correcting him when he calls a goose a duck!! I’m such an ass.

Isn’t it amazing, however, that they learn to process all this? I can’t believe how many different examples of a bunny, or a dog, or a bear are presented to little kids (think about it in terms of bears, everything from Paddington to Pooh to Eric Carle’s abstract polar bear to a photo of a grizzly). Those are all very different representations and yet they start to get it, very quickly. It blows me away.

Scylla, I’ll be on the lookout to see if your daughter posts a pit thread about what a liar you are.

5

: imagining how life on the farm may be affecting Scylla’s daughter :
“What this a picture of, sweetheart?”

“Poop-poop!”

“No, darling, that’s a cat. Okay, what’s this a picture of?”

“Hump-hump!”

“No, dear, that’s a goat. Try this one…what’s this one here?”

“Daddy, that’s a &%@$#! whistlepig!”

“That’s soooo Gooood! Yayyyyy!” We clap our hands.

6

This sounds like it might be a bit advanced, but if you could get one of those books that shows how to draw animals using geometric shapes, then filling them out, that’d probably help show how bears are mostly circles (round head, round ears, round mouth, round body), and dogs are mostly pointy triangles (pointy ears, pointy nose, pointy pin-head).

Also, there’s the concept of scale. Find a book that has pictures all on the same page, with everything drawn to scale.

7

I just took my niece to the zoo. We had been having a similar problem with identifying bears. I think the smell convinced her that bears are not related to anything else on earth.

If there isn’t a zoo in your area, Scylla, I’d be happy to trot back to mine with a Ziploc baggie and mail you some of the stink. Just let me know.

8

Yours is not a unique problem. We ran into a little kid at the park one day who insisted our Doggie was a Pony. He was not to be convinced otherwise. Of course Doggie towered over the kid, so I can see his point of view, here. Life experience tends to mend these sorts of perceptions all on its own. :slight_smile:

9

Scylla, she probably doesn’t think you’re a liar, she has likely decided you’re an idiot. Most kids wait until adolescence to get to this stage; your daughter is clearly exceptionally precocious.

10

How is it that you are not able to recognize a pup-pup when you see one?

11

seawitch, I don’t have a child, and I can tell the difference between a pup-pup and a bear, but I’d like a Ziploc full of bear stink.

And while “Ziploc Full of Bear Stink” wouldn’t make such a great band name, it would make a great album title. What WOULD make a good band name is “Scylla and the Pup-pups”.

12

Lots of bear stuff primarily aimed at kids. Includes wav files and mpg movies from zoos.

13

This illustratees one of those little “family differences” that make in-laws so much fun. My MIL dosn’t correct kids. Were she reading that book, she would hav just nodded her head and said “Yep! Pup-pup!” Drives me crazy. I finally figured out that she thought correcting children was harmful or insulting, whereas it never bothered me as a child–I always understood that my parents knew more than me (about STUFF. I knew more about LIFE) and that sharing knowledge was a form of sharing love.

Different strokes for different folks, but I wouldn’t let the MIL raise my kids.

14

Oh yeah…

My kids are in that phase too.

:Points to a small, furry, four legged animal that purrs"
“What’s that”
“Kitty!” (At 180 decibels, 22 octaves above High C)
:Points to a small, furry, 4 legged animal that barks:
“What’s that?”
“Kitty!” (Same level as before)
:Points to a Big, Furry, 4 Legged animal that barks:
“What’s that?”
“Pup-py” (50 decibles, about middle C)

The trip to the zoo, I learned there where two animals “Kitty” and “Puppy”.

But they’re cute anyway. :smiley:

15

Years ago, (pre-son days), I was walking in the woods with a friend and her 3 year old niece. We came across a feather, and I thought, gee, that’ll be a great conversation starter. So, I tried:

What kind of animal has feathers?

::crickets chirping::

Do kitties have feathers?

::more crickets::

Do doggies have feathers?

::god I hate those damn crickets::

So I gave up and kept on walking with her. A few moments later, in the scornful voice only a toddler can manage:

“kitties don’t have feathers. Doggies don’t have feathers. Birds have feathers”

16

Scylla, it’s normal for children learning their first language to have imperfect semantic boundaries (such as including BEAR in the definition of “dog”). Don’t let it freak you out.

17

At that age, there are four basic animal groups:

  1. Kitties

  2. Doggies

  3. Birdies

  4. Dinosaurs

Animals that can not be immediately identified as one of these four groups are defaulted into one of them, based on what that animal most looks like. For instance, a butterfly (and in my daughter’s case, airplanes) would end up in the Birdie group, and a lizard would probably end up in the Dinosaur category.

They generally start understanding that there’s more to it than this when they realize that dinosaurs aren’t purple, and they never were. And it’s always interesting when you try to explain that yes, lions technically fall in to the Kitty group, but NO you MAY NOT pet them, EVER.

18

Sorry, that sounded harsh. Anyway, much love to the Scylla-let. She’ll figure out what a bear is sooner or later.

19

My mother (rightly or wrongly) subscribed to the theory that it was wrong to force children to go through the process of learning names for things, only to force them to repeat the process later on. So, she refused to teach me “baby words” for animals, etc. My childhood was devoid of kitties and pup-pups. “That’s a cat!”, she’d say.

Now I’ve got a three year old stepson, I’m wondering if my mother was right or not. I find myself varying between baby words and real nouns when I talk to my stepson - probably really confusing the poor little bugger.

20

Just keep reading to her on a regular basis and the rest will sort itself out just fine.