We have secured tickets to Sweden for the autumn. It has been a long and sordid story, but we were able to book four tickets to Stockholm.
Now to get myself geared up to deal with MIL, plus the other myriad issues I may (or may not) have.
Yesterday, my first preemptive strike strategy took effect.
One of LittleMan's nicknames is Maverick. It rhymes with his real name, and I am using this to highlight my point without disclosing any private family info.
My MIL has some kind of linguistic defect. Or hearing defect. Or she might just be a bitch. Regardless of what her issue is, she refuses to cannot pronounce LittleMan's name properly.
So, rather than call him Maverick, she calls him Maverique. As in trying to make it sound French. She doesn't speak French. She boycotted French wines when the nuclear testing thing was going down. However, despite having been corrected several times she continues to call him Maverique.
It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Since adults will often not let other adults correct them but can be shamed by small children, yesterday began with the implementation of Phase I of Mission Maverick.
The conversation went as follows:
Me: Hey LittleBird. You know Maverick's name is Maverick.
LittleBird: Yeah!
Me: We don't say Maverique do we?
LittleBird gives me a weird look like Why in the hell would we call him Maverique?
Me: If someone called him Maverique, what would you say?
LittleBird, with all the attitude an indignant three-year old can muster: His name is MAVERICK, not MaverIQUE!!
That's my girl.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Lining Up Those Ducks
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9 comments:
That is absolutely genius. I love it. I can't wait until the day E is old enough to talk smack to MIL without realizing it.
She sounds like a wonderful woman. She could hang out with my Mom if you want. Maybe become bridge partners.
@Jayna: I have mixed feelings about using children as pawns, but this somehow seemed justified. :)
@CiHV: Sounds like they'd be great partners. She hasn't seen our kids in two years. It would interrupt her three favorite pastimes: Smoking cigarettes, having her nails done, and playing bridge.
That is just too damned awesome for words! You go Little Bird! :-)
I hate this. People refuse to learn Lancelot's name. It is not hard. Unusual, yes, but not hard. Drives me nuts.
May the force be with you and Maverick.
And THAT is why Little Bird and Buddha will either marry each other or be life-long friends.
I am salivating in anticipation of stories of Little Bird schooling the MIL.
My aunt does the same thing to BG. I do NOT approve of the nickname she gives her and I have said thus to her face in front of BG. But, she uses it anyway. So, I tried what you did. But it backfired. BG likes the nickname coming from my aunt. She even corrected my aunt once when she used her full name instead of the nickname. ARGH! Go figure!!
Good luck with that one!!
@CMGD: I am sure you can just picture it! LOL
@Gypsy: Isn't that just crazy? What the hell is wrong with people? LittleBird's name has an unusual pronunciation as well, so I think she is tuned in to the whole "pronunciation" thing.
@Buddha_Girl: I think I will have enough blog fodder for years to come once this trip is over and done with. And I can't wait to get a pic of our two together and start chronicling their relationship.
@MommyWizdom: I think we are screwed on his nickname, too. I can let that one go as long as she gets his REAL name right.
Stealth tactics! Atta girl! I love it!
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