What Did You Say?!!!!

I thought I heard you say something that I'm sure you didn't mean to say.  With my hearing loss becoming more and more noticeable, I've been thinking about days gone by when I could hear, and what I heard someone say that was just unbelievable.  Those someones were usually my children.  Sarah and Julie learned very quickly not to repeat the unbelievable when I asked them, "What did you just say?"  Jacob, not such a fast learner, but his sisters clued him in quickly.  I remember the day he referred to someone, using a not so nice name.  I said, "What did you just say?"  So he repeated it for me.  Sarah and Julie immediately jumped into the conversation with, "JACOB, when mom asks you that, NEVER repeat what you just said.  You are SO in trouble."  He didn't have a clue what the name meant, and when I told him, it was immediately funny to him.  It was funny, I admit that, but it wasn't nice.  Sometimes funny isn't nice, but it's still funny.  I admit that my kids could make me laugh, when I needed to be stern.

When the kids were little, we often called Sarah, "Bossy Boots".  Rightfully so, since she was the oldest, she knew more than her younger siblings, and she needed to boss them.  My mom was in the beginnings of her hearing loss time in life, so she often heard them say things that they really didn't say.  Jacob was about three years old at the time, and he was slightly irritated with Sarah.  In his state of irritation and frustration, he called her Bossy Boots.  Mom heard him call her Bossy Boobs.  When I got home from work to pick up the kids, she said that we needed to have a talk with Jacob about respecting his sisters.  It really isn't nice to call Sarah Bossy Boobs, and where in the world would he get that from anyway?  She was so upset. She was in such a snit over the whole thing.  It didn't help that I immediately started laughing.  Poor Mom, her lot in life to have me for a daughter has been such a trial.

What I heard and what you said are often not the same.  But you need to listen to the tone of my question when I ask what you said.  If I just ask, "What did you say?", it means I really didn't hear you.  If I say, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?", it means you might want to rephrase your answer.

Cretia