Sometimes the most inappropriate things our children do and say also happen to be the most hilarious. Say, for instance, when your daughter asks her Grandpa if he has a baby in his tummy like Mommy. Or when she announces to her daddy that he "has hairy boobies" and she "just has little boobies". Both if these scenarios are completely hypothetical, of course...
But I digress!
My darling husband has developed a fantastic coping method for those times when we wish to highlight the impropriety of a situation and hide the hilarity.
He fake cries.
This accomplishes two things for him. First, it allows him to hide the uncontrollable peals of laughter. Second, it forces me to be the bad cop. I have to stay solemn and inform my daughter that her bad manners have made Daddy cry. She almost always apologizes right away, corrects her bad manners and says, "Don't cry Daddy." When she's not covered in food (lots of "bad manners" situations happen at the dinner table) there's even usually a hug in it for him.
It's a win-win for him, and honestly I don't mind. I'm much better at keeping a straight face than he is. She's such a daddy's girl, I'm pretty sure he can't help but think that nearly everything she does is adorable. Besides, I don't think it's a bad thing for her to grow up knowing that the men in her life are sensitive to her behavior. Words and actions have power, hers as well as ours.
This past week, Norah and I were in the car together when "The Only Exception" by Paramore came on. I have to be careful of what songs come on in the car now, because Norah actually listens to the words. The first line of this particular song says, "When I was younger I saw my Daddy cry and curse at the wind."
Suddenly, I heard a little voice on my right-hand-side in the back seat ask, "Daddy cried?" then solemnly observe, "Daddy cries when you have bad manners."
I turned to the left, stifled a giggle and said, "Well, yes sweetie. Sometimes he does."
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