Years ago my Aunt Sam shared some of her favorite parenting stories with me. Here’s some of her favorites, in her own words:
“My son Bill learned to say The Lord’s Prayer very early and said it each night before going to bed. One evening when I was particularly attentive, I heard him say, ‘And deliver us from eagles.’
“Along similar lines, my friend, Joyce Cotterman, was telling her young son, Kevin, about Jesus, explaining that all you have to do is believe in Jesus to belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. Kevin considered this for a few minutes and then said, ‘I’d rather be a Mouseketeer.’
“My daughter Nancy was eating her very first ice cream cone. She consumed it with relish but with just one small problem. She ate the cone first and was left holding a blob of ice cream. She still likes the cone better than the ice cream.
“When I opened a can of fruit cocktail, I prayed that there would be an even amount of cherries or my two children would fight over the odd one. I eventually solved that problem by eating the odd one myself.
“My brother-in-law, Neil Hoppe, had a car painted bright red and was delighted with the results. He parked it in the driveway and admired it as he walked into the house. Later, when he came out to admire it some more, he discovered many stars scratched in the paint.
“His young daughter, Linda, had learned how to draw stars at school that day, and the beautiful red paint seemed like a real nice place to practice.”
Thanks for the chuckles, Aunt Sam, and for sharing your memories with us!
Do you have a parenting or grandparenting memory
or another story you’d like to share?
If you’re not a parent, memories from your own childhood count, too.
Warning: I might feature your story in a future post.
(Names can be changed to protect the guilty!)
I’d like to thank all those who have shared their stories.
These posts wouldn’t be the same without your input.
If you don’t want to leave a comment but would rather contact me by email,
here’s my address: lynkelwoohoo at yahoo dot com.
A version of these stories originally appeared in The Highland Community News in January 2000.
Those are great! Really like the deliver us from eagles.
These are great! Thanks for sharing them. I like your solution to the cherries in the fruit cocktail. :)My grandparents lived in PA near Lancaster County, so my family and i (from a small town in southern NJ) enjoyed seeing the farms and rural landscape when visiting. One of my sisters used to call a silo a halo. To this day, when I talk about a farm's silo, I mentally check myself to make sure I don't accidentally call it a halo. Have a great week,Karen
Alex – I got a kick out of that, too! Thanks!Karen – LOL! Thanks for sharing about your childhood memories and your sister's cute mixup with those words. Kids come up with the cutest things, don't they?
Yeah, those are some good ones. I'm sure I have uttered my share of silly things when I was a kid, but I am not snitching on myself. After all, this IS the Internet. lol
Kids are the best, Lynn! I love that eagles reference, too. It reminds me of Coleen's post a few weeks back about misquoting songs – proof it's not only kids who have this problem 🙂 As for stories of me as a kid – I've been scratching my brain, but I don't know a single funny thing I said or did…at least not that anyone told me 🙂
Those are priceless! I wish I would have written some of them down when mine were babies. The only one that my mom always loved to tell about me (and I remember it!) was when I looked through my parent's wedding album and couldn't understand why I wasn't invited…. ***giggle***
LOL these are great! When my brother was little, he ate hotdogs sideways. While weird, it worked out ok – until one time when the dog rolled out and onto the floor!
Today my grandson was supposed to be cleaning his room. When my daughter went in to check on his progress, there in the middle of the floor was a clock…smashed to bits.My daughter asked him why he'd done it. His words, "It's my gift for you, Mommy. I heard you say you wished you could stop the time from moving on that clock, so I did it for you!"
Oh the stars on the car–I can't help but laugh at the innocence of it!! Of course, I'm not sure how I'd feel if it had been my car. 🙂
oh man! That must've made him cringe! But there is no better joy than discovering your child can draw stars:)Nutschellwww.thewritingnut.com
I love reading about things kids have said and done. Off the top of my head, one of the cutest things is when my son not quite four. Listening to an oldies station in the car, it suddenly hit me that he was singing with the chorus…Hang on, Stupid…Stupid hang on. (Sloopy, but that's not how he heard it) 🙂
Great stories. I couldn't help but cringe to the red paint and stars. Ouch! One day when my daughter was mad she stormed off to her room. She later showed me the life sized portrait she had drawn on the wall of a sad version of herself. It's still there today. All in yellow.
i always used to say prayers wronghail mary and our father especiallyid get most of it, but then mess up a bit and not realize it until i heard it in church or TV or something!along those lines, i often messed up the canadian anthem too lol
And to think my parenting journey is just beginning. 🙂