Originally published between 2011 and 2014, this post has been updated but preserves its original publish date as content is migrated from the archives of The Flavored Word.
The greatest thing about being young—and by young, I mean younger than anyone who would potentially be reading this … or anyone who is presumably out of grade school—is that they have the innate ability to say what they mean, and actually mean what they say.
For example, I have a ten-year-old daughter who not all that long ago told me, she wanted to be smaller.
Puzzled and anxious, my mind started blaring … WARNING … WARNING … could she have an eating disorder? Was she experiencing some sort of peril that was making her think she needed to be skinny? Like super DUPER skinny. Bear in mind, this girl is far from overweight. She is fit. She is slim. And more importantly, she is smart, friendly and truthfully gorgeous inside and out.
And then, was this my fault? She’s certainly overheard me complain about some conceived imperfection … be it five pounds, ten pounds … be it hair not straight enough or hair too curly … she’s seen me skip dinner … she has seen me eat too much dinner … the list goes on. Was the culprit behind her sudden walk to the dark side of (gulp) dieting because of something I said?
But before I could decipher the correct words (if there are any) to ease what I feared was a wary mind, I simply asked, “Why?” And she cleanly, purely answered:
“Because it would be really cool to fit into a mouse hole and see just where they go.” She shrugged, walked out of the room and went on with her day.
I laughed. Relieved. And a bit annoyed with myself for my erroneous assumption. And as I watched her walk away, I couldn’t help but wonder if, perhaps, there was a mouse hole somewhere in our house … now THAT, was something to worry about.
So, what about you? When you jump too fast to a conclusion, are you able to let your brain breathe a minute and decode the literal from the fictional? Are there times when, in retrospect, you wish you would have?
Feature image created with Google AI.
DISCLAIMER: I’m a writer and an editor. And I try my best to make sure every post is articulate and free from errors. However, being that I edit my own work—and it’s next to impossible to properly edit your own work—I admit, occasionally there may be an error or two I miss. But doing so doesn’t make me an idiot so don’t be mean. Just smile, pat yourself on the back for finding an error and be glad you’re not the only one who makes mistakes sometimes … xoxox
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