Fatherly Stuff: The Flaws in Kid Logic

Mar 25, 2014

The Flaws in Kid Logic



It started out like any other night- my 4 year old and I were about halfway though our nighttime routine and were in the bathroom brushing our teeth. He's not quite tall enough to reach the sink, so he needed to go on his step stool in order to spit out his toothpaste. As I wiped off his mouth, something on the counter caught his eye.
 
"Daddy, what's that?"
 
"It's just some baking soda"
 
His eyes lit up. "Oooh. Can I try some?"
 
Perplexed, I simply explained to him that baking soda is really gross and he really wouldn't want to taste it. I tried to divert his attention by trying to get him to tell me what book we were going to read, but he was undeterred. He quickly reached in the box of baking soda, grabbed a pinch and put it into his mouth before I was able to stop him.
 
There was no need to wash his mouth out because his face immediately began to grimace and he started spitting and wiped his tongue off with the sleeve of his shirt.
 
"See? I told you it was gross", I affirmed as I got him a glass of water.
 
"But Daddy", he says with a sad and confused look. "You said that it was "Bacon-Soda", so I thought it would taste good."
 
That's when I realized that when I told him that the contents of the Arm & Hammer box was "baking soda", he was under the impression that I would taste like something along the lines of this:
 

 
 
In any case, we both learned a valuable lesson. He learned that if his dad tells him to not eat something, he probably shouldn't. As for me; I learned that when I am explaining what something is to a 4 year old, I need to do a better job pronouncing my words. 

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