Excuse me, mom, I speak whinese

For the Horn side of the family, Joe wanted me to title this "Excuse me, ma'am, but I speak jive." But I've never seen the movie Airplane and didn't find it near as funny as he did. Maybe you will get it if you were born a Horn... Anyway, on with my post. One of my favorite books is Creative Correction by Lisa Welchel. She gives very creative ideas on how to correct some common childhood errors. I tend not to be very creative in that department, so I find it very helpful. A year or two ago, we had a whiner develop in our house. I was at my ropes end when I consulted Lisa's book. One of her suggestions, which I loved, was to tell the child that you can't understand him/her because you don't speak whinese. I loved the idea and immediately began to use it. And it worked great!!!! Well, in the last couple of weeks we have had a new whiner develop. (You would think after having four children I would know what breeds whining by now, but I don't...) So this morning I decided to try my foreign language bit. So I said, "I can't understand you. I don't speak whinese. In order for me to help you, you have to talk like a big kid so I can understand you." The child stared at me blankly and then proceeded to restate the same thing in the same language--whinese. I told the child that I didn't understand. (I was beginning to think that said child didn't undertand english) But then, just as I thought all was lost, another child began to interpret "Mom, (the child) said..." So glad at least someone in the house can speak whinese...