Stupid Smart Kid

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

filed under: family

Momlogic's Jackie: My hubby and I have always spelled words to keep the kids out of the loop. But now my four-year-old can read. How am I supposed to hide stuff if he can break the code?

"Hey Honey, we can take the kids to the p-a-r-k today."

"We're going to the PARK?!" my four-year-old belts out.

Damn.

Spelling has been the one thing that has kept my kids from infiltrating our grownup conversations. In fact, I have another mom friend who I practically spell everything with when having a play date with our kids.

"Did you see K-A-T-E at the party? Are she and D-A-V-I-D getting a d-i-v-o-r-c-e? He is an a-s-s."

Now that my son is obsessed with reading, spelling and anything phonics, he'll just jump into the conversations with an energetic "A-S-S spells... Ass! What's an ass?"

I'm thrilled that he's bright and eager to learn. But now what I am supposed to do? My hubby and I tried pig latin over the weekend. You know... "Honey, we could ake-tay the ids-kay to the ark-pay," but my husband spends much too long trying to decipher the code and I just get frustrated.

How do you keep secrets from your kids? (And before you comment that you don't ... yeah, you do.)

5 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

Well, if Ig-pay Atin-lay doesn’t work you’ll just have to invest in a thesaurus and start using more obscure words.

- Uly

Posted 12/03/08 09:34 AM

It’s a bummer for us too, now that our four-year-old can decipher what we’re trying to spell. And pig latin? I wouldn’t even ATTEMPT it, with my husband. He stares blankly at me sometimes, when I use ‘regular’ words! How ‘bout trying something ‘annoying’, like: Use fifty words to describe that one (previously spelled) word. Example: Old way: “We’re going to the p-a-r-k today.” Becomes something ridiculous like: “Later, let’s go to that location next to the-body-of-water-downtown [don’t want the say “the lake” out loud], that has all that metal apparatus? On top of the mulch? With the items like that wooden structure we have in our backyard?” If my husband is even able to figure out WHAT I’m talking about, he’ll then ‘blow it’ by saying (after staring blankly at me for 15 seconds): “…to the park?” So…maybe it’s not such a good method, after all. :)

- mama_chita

Posted 12/04/08 03:51 PM

Use SOUND MAP numbers: 16 /p/ 11 /a/ 38 /r/ 22 /k/

- WordsAhead

Posted 12/05/08 09:52 AM

looks like you’ve thought this through!

- HAHAMAMACHITA

Posted 12/05/08 02:34 PM

Text message. My husband and I text each other with our 14 and 11 year olds sitting right next to us. Works great.

- M.Rogers

Posted 12/10/08 01:20 AM