This weekend, NPR’s This American Life featured stories on “Kid Logic.” Over the course of the hour, Ira Glass introduced stories of children who tried to make sense of the many puzzles of the adult world. In one story, a little girl’s best friend discovers that her father “is the Easter Bunny.” Rather than putting two-and-two together, both little girls decide that the dad IS actually the Easter Bunny. Their parents go along with the ruse.
But how would a child know? Do you assume that your parents are playing an elaborate prank on you? Especially when your whole culture is in on the joke?
The story made me think of my own leaps of logic. As you might have guessed from the picture above, every time I heard “guerrilla warfare” on the news, I thought Planet of the Apes was at hand.
While I have many of my own embarrassing stories, I also asked my friends to contribute their own “kid logic confessions.” Here are some of my favorite. Please let us hear your stories as well!
“Ms. Tubman to Platform 9 3/4s!”
A friend tells me that she thought the slaves used an actual, literal, “underground railroad” to make their escapes. How they constructed something so elaborate without being detected remains a mystery…
What’s all the fuss about Watergate?
“I thought Watergate referred to a dam of some sort. I can still see the same image in my mind.”
“Who wants a nightcap?”
“All those 70s shows when they would invite someone to “stay for a nightcap.” I thought they were giving them an actual hat. In my head it looked like a Scrooge-style long “nightcap.”
On “Parting Gifts” at the end of game shows:
“I thought they ALL got turtle wax. I wanted some of that! Only, I didn’t have a turtle.”
Kennedy’s Crisis
“Bay of Pigs? How many pigs fit in the Bay of Pigs? If the pigs could swim, the water must be really dirty.”
I wonder if Haverty’s has a showroom…
“I struggled with the term deathbed…and considered that the bed was specifically bought for a person to lay down and die on. That creeped me out, and still does..such that I never bought a used bed.”
Who’s That Girl?
“My mom loves to tell the story of me, around 7 or 8 years old, asking her, “Who is this Polly Esther person, and why are you talking about her?”
I Still Wish I Was Right About This…
“I was told by a friends older sister that there would be a “Cake Walk” at my first-ever school carnival. I thought it would be a GIANT FOAM CAKE with a line across the middle. The game was to walk the line. If you diverged, you’d fall into a pile of foam (like egg-crate foam) in the middle. If you made it all the way across, you won a real cake.
I was SO disappointed to discover what it really was.”
Finder’s Keepers
“I thought when a business was founded…. that they had found it somewhere.”
Don’t forget! We would love to hear your own tales of kid logic!
My 11yr old son, upon hearing this said, “Hey, I’ve got one. I always thought Beeswax was wax from the ears of bees!”
Totally awesome! 🙂
Heee heee hee. This rocks! I so love to here I’m not compl alone. Thanks a bunch Jamie!!
I can’t wait to hear more. And thanks! Kids are so creative. 🙂
For years I thought a jungle gym was actually a “Jungle Jim,” named after a Tarzan-like man with superior upper body strength. Don’t ask me how old I was when I finally figured it out!