16 August 2007

Nonsense

We do talk a lot of nonsense to our children, or is that just me? My parents tried to convince me that icecream vans only play their jingle when they've run out of icecream; I'm trying to convince the FB that they don't sell icecreams but cucumbers. Probably with as much success as my parents had with their little tale.
The idea for this post came about after I spent a while this morning trying, but not succeeding, to get the FB to believe me that the crashing sound he had heard while out on a walk was not, as he thought, the sound of someone doing some DIY, but was instead the footstep of an invisible giant who, being shy, had hidden from us. The FB was not having any of it, and said that no, giants are only found in stories.

15 comments:

Ali said...

The tall tales we tell our children are one of the hidden benefits of parenthood in my book! My Dad told me that the writing on the top of a bottle of Coke said 'Not to be opened until Sunday'. I bought it for ages.

Anonymous said...

Had a long chat about dragons with my newly-five year olds last night as we waited for dinner to be ready. Girl twin - destined for the stage - managed to bring herself to tears at the thought that the very last dragon had died a long time ago with a sword in his heart.

Boy twin wished he'd had the sword.

Oh, and I do the "music means they're out of ice cream" too. They'll work it out one day but big girl is nine and still thinks it's true.

caramaena said...

I tried the music means they're out too but he doesn't believe me. I spose it doesn't work if he sees other kids getting icecream.

Stomper Girl said...

I tell them that the icecream van icecreams make you sick. Well, they recommend you not have them if you're pregnant....

meggie said...

I never thought to tell my children such things! My mother told me crusts would make my hair curl.... I believed it. She scarred me for life!

Anonymous said...

Stepdaughter used to call headlice ants, so Mr T used to threaten her with the ant hospital.

Now I am infested with the little blighters thanks to her I wish the ant hospital really existed, particularly for stepdaughters. Grrrr!

Sussanah said...

My husband still uses that lie, everytime the van comes past my boy sighs, "they are always out of icecream when it gets to us mum..."

Aunty Evil said...

The reason for my spider phobia is that my mother told me when I was just little that a scratch from a Huntsman spider will weep at the same time every year. That totally grossed me out.

Pam said...

Velcro, I'm shocked at you. Good for the FB.

Come and live in Edinburgh! It's not pouring with rain as I write this, and of course you know I never tell lies...

I'm glad that the Botanics are one of your favourite places too. Maybe one time when you come to Edinburgh we could meet for a coffee there...?

Caro said...

I always thought that truck sold tofu so I ran and hid.

Guess who'll be calling her mother this weekend!

Pam said...

Re your cat-trapping comment on my post - aha! What good suggestions! I especially like the wrapping-up-in-a-towel bit. That might work. A sort of ad hoc straitjacket.

Certainly just using hands wasn't notably successful, though it would have made an amusing film.

velcro said...

Ah Caramaena, my mother also used to tell us that if we ate icecream from street vendors we would get ill so my sister and I never bought any despite our friends eating it by the gallon and never getting sick. The guliblity of youth (ps you were right - Country and Western is not music either).

Isabelle I'd love to meet up in the Botanics! & Good luck next time getting the kittens into their basket. It gets harder and harder as they got older and wiser (for cats)

Caro, - tofu?? And with that one comment you neatly show the difference between California and the UK. I don't think I was even aware that such a thing existed until I was in my early 20s.

My float said...

Sadly, my son learnt very early that icecream vans sell...icecream! Last week he was super-excited to learn that a van, with flashing lights and bell, drives through our streets sellign icecream. He knows this because he found the brochure in our letterbox and SOMEONE WHO SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS told him all about it. He even took the brochure to pre-school to show them.

If I'd been smart enough from the very beginnng, I'd have used the "they've run out of icecream" line too!

Anonymous said...

In a parenting magazine I read not too long ago had an article on the fibs told to children. The pull quote: "The lies you tell a child are simply a shortcut to tranquility." That cracked me up.

Anonymous said...

Irecently read a parenting magazine that had an article on this very subject. The pull uote they used: "The lies told to children are simply a shortcut to tranquility." That cracked me up.