Communication is key....

We were eating lunch and talking about hair. Don't ask how in the world we started talking about hair at lunch... I know we were talking about a story on a CD we have, where the kid gets his mom back for embarassing him by yelling, "If my mom didn't shave her legs she'd look like a gorilla!!!" RF and LMcB LOVE that, so it actually does come up pretty often.

Anyway, LMcB was remembering how my hair used to be "really" long. RF said it wasn't THAT long - "Really" long hair would be down to my feet. Jason said, "If her hair was down to her feet, we could call her Crystal Gayle."

RF got quiet (which means he's thinking...). He said, "Mom, I think I just heard Dad say that if your hair grew down to your feet that you and Krista would go to jail...."

I know now why women are estimated to use 20,000 words per day and men use only 10,000. It's because we have to REPEAT every last word we say! And usually we have to explain what we said!!!

Like this:
Me: Get down from there!
Either boy: What, mom?
Me: I said, 'Get Down.'
Boy: Why?
Me: #1, I Said So. #2, you might break your arm! Or worse, your neck! Just GET DOWN!
Boy: Why can't I break my arm?

And then I start to try to explain why he doesn't want to break his arm/neck, which probably sounds like, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" to him. At some point I realize that no one is listening to me, but by that time I have used up another 1,000 words. And Jason could say the same thing one time, using just the first two words (Get Down), and it would register right off. I was thinking that dads must have some kind of inaudible grunt that helps kids hear what they are saying, but then again RF thought that Jason said I was going to jail for growing my hair too long.
But of course, Jason let me explain what he had actually said instead of helping me out. He had to save up his words for the rest of the day, I guess.