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SN children

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Original poster

Taking Pedantry to a new level

50 replies

lougle · 14/03/2013 16:18

DD2 said 'I played with X and Y today. We played 'doggies'. I was X's doggy and Y was the burglar.'

I recognised the plot so I said:

'Ooh, like 101 Dalmatians.'

DD2 frowned and said 'No!'

I said 'Was Y trying to steal you?'

DD2: Yes.

Me: 'Well....in 101 Dalmatians the burglars were trying to steal the doggies, weren't they?'

DD2: Yes.

Me: 'So it's like 101 Dalmatians...'

DD2: 'No, Mummy! There weren't lots of them. They didn't have spots and we. were. human .!!!!

OP posts:

EllenJaneisstillnotmyname · 14/03/2013 19:07

I used to struggle with separate or seperate as well.

EllenJaneisstillnotmyname · 14/03/2013 19:07

And we are merely acquaintances, Lougle.

moosemama · 14/03/2013 19:20

I'm scared of apostrophes - but I put that one in especially for you Lougle.

Best typo I've had any direct involvement with was when my old boss proof read a glossy brochure for the course we were managing and failed to notice it said 'pubic sector management'. They had had a run of 5,000 printed before anyone noticed!

MareeyaDolores · 14/03/2013 19:25

moose, that's class

Ineedmorepatience · 14/03/2013 19:30

Funny

moosemama · 14/03/2013 19:30

I thought so Mareeya - certainly wiped the smug look off my ... ahem - not very nice - bosses' face.

(Did I use that apostrophe correctly?)

EllenJaneisstillnotmyname · 14/03/2013 19:32

That's for the smug looks belonging to all your many bosses.

Original poster

lougle · 14/03/2013 19:39

I'll forgive errors made in the pursuit of improvement....

Merely acquaintances, Ellen? How very dare you! We sat right next to each other - more adult contact than I've had in years at that meet-up

OP posts:

EllenJaneisstillnotmyname · 14/03/2013 19:41

Not sure I remember that much 'adult' contact.

moosemama · 14/03/2013 20:08

See I told you I was hopeless at it.

'not very nice boss' face' OR 'not very nice boss's face

Although I did actually have two bosses at the time and they were both involved, but I will admit to only intending to refer to one of them.

EllenJaneisstillnotmyname · 14/03/2013 20:11

Boss's, I think. Look at you getting grammar advice from someone who laminated 'definate.'

moosemama · 14/03/2013 20:19

You see, I thought it was boss', because I vaguely remember being told to drop the s after the apostrophe if the word ended in an s already.

Mind you, my mum remembers being appalled when she raised my poor punctuation with my secondary English teacher. She questioned my overuse of semi-colons and he said "Well Mrs X, if in doubt, stick in a semi-colon - that's what I always say."

So it's not really a surprise that I never really conquered the finer points of punctuation.

EllenJaneisstillnotmyname · 14/03/2013 21:02

Depends if you say bossis, or boss for it belongs to to the boss. It's like James' toy or James's toy, first one pronounced James, second, Jamesis. (I think Waits for true pedants to correct me.)

MerryCouthyMows · 15/03/2013 07:45

I catch 4 buses a day, 2 with the older DS's. I have been doing this since DS1 was 2yo. Since he was 4yo, EVERY day, DS1 has pointed out that the sign saying "This seat is for persons in wheelchairs" is grammatically incorrect, and should say "this seat is for people in wheelchairs".

NotMe2 · 15/03/2013 09:22

See being pedantic has its uses. I am sure that none of these children will have an issue to write and speak 'properly' .

ds2 does the same thing re time. And also any measurements etc...
So when he came back with a list food to take to school and some specific weight, I though he was just pedantic again. Except he wasn't. His teacher was trying to teach the importance of proportion in the diet so having more specific weight of certain food was important....

And we also have the 'Aaagh, I am going to kill you!' using whatever bit of wood that ds2 can find. If I look at him saying 'Oh you want to kill me?' I have a 'Oh Noooo. It's not for real. Look it's a fake gun.'.....

ouryve · 15/03/2013 09:51

Ineed DS1 does that with the time, as well. We've been working on emphasising words and phrases like approximately, about, roughly, almost (which he always corrects "did you mean to say nearly?"), getting on for...

ouryve · 15/03/2013 09:59

More DS1 pedantry:

DS2 has the names of shapes in his emerging vocabulary. He likes pinching collecting all the lego wheels he can and correctly identifies the shape, shouting birple! as he puts each one down. This infuriates DS1 (not hard) who, by the end of the arrangement session has steam coming out of his ears, yelling THEY'RE NOT PURPLE!!!!!! :o

shoppingbagsundereyes · 15/03/2013 11:09

This drives me nuts with ds. This morning I suggested he put his comic relief nose in his tray when he was bored of it in case it got lost. Ds 'it isn't a tray, it's a drawer' . I've tried to explain that if you can understand what the person meant it isn't necessary to correct them but to no avail.

moosemama · 15/03/2013 13:23

Ouryve -

We've had a Red Nose Day one this morning as well shoppingbags.

Ds has made a concession to the fancy dress theme at school 1980's by choosing himself a new Space Invaders (should that have an apostrophe somewhere? ) t-shirt. Dd asked him why he wasn't dressing up in fancy dress and we got.

"First of all dd, it's not fancy, it's just different and secondly - why would I dress up as someone else when I am actually me."

Poor old dd was

She did try to explain to him that she was still her, but in a 1980's fame style outfit - but he was having none of it. Comes to something when the 4 year old gets it better than the nearly 11 year old.

PolterGoose · 15/03/2013 13:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

moosemama · 15/03/2013 13:43

ouryve · 15/03/2013 14:29

moosemama :o

DS1 used to refuse to dress up, for the same reasons. I now have to be the parent who leaves it to school to dress him up. He wouldn't even discuss world book day with me, but managed to come up with an outfit with his 1:1. It helps if he has a big chest of stuff to choose from, so he doesn't have to work so hard with his imagination.

MerryCouthyMows · 16/03/2013 11:07

Argh, shopping, that is my DS1 ALL OVER. It's sooooo bloody infuriating to he corrected when you KNOW that HE knows what you mean...

MerryCouthyMows · 16/03/2013 11:09

At why would I dress up as someone else when I'm me.

My Dbro always said that at school too!

Ineedmorepatience · 16/03/2013 11:16

shopping and merry Dd3 is being infuriating with this kind of thing at the moment.

She is arguing and correcting us over every tiny little thing.

I cant decide whether it is a puberty thing or a control thing but either way its driving me bonkers.

I love her to bits and she says the funniest thing sometimes but there is no stop button and she soo needs a stop button

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