Thursday, August 27, 2009
"HUH?"!!
Happy Fatherhood Friday Everyone...where this weeks theme is:
"The Start of the School Year" Take the big yellow bus on over
to DAD-BLOGS. C'mon, you know you wanna read the coolest blog posts alive...especially when it comes to reliving your own school daze!
I remember the first day of school, feeling so excited that I had on my new clothes, my new shoes, new pencils, new binders, new backpack...and was about to embark on a new journey...one where I would walk proud, chin up, carrying my new Partridge Family lunch box onto the yard and be the coolest kid around. SCREEEECH!.
Partridge Family lunch box??
No matter how hip the clothes, could you imagine today...Going anywhere with a Partridge Family lunch box? Unless you are a girl. (contrary to popular belief, I am not one). Although, if a vintage one, and you made like $300 bucks for it on EBay, who would be laughing now? Eh?
Sometimes, as many have said, throughout the generations...Kids can say the darnedest things. However, as we all know, they can also "repeat" the worst words, phrases and slogans. Most times it can be cute as hell, but this? This is maddening: "HUH?"
Since I was a kid I have despised this word. My Mother, Teachers, Neighbors, etc, would always exclaim to me and my brothers: "Huh is NOT a word". I hated them for it.
Like in school, when I hadda go pee pee...chest up, look the teacher straight in the eye, raise arm in the air and ask: "Teacher, can I go to the bathroom?" Miss Scankey responds (yes, that was the name of my first grade teacher)...anyway, Miss Scankey says: "Yes you can David"...so, I get up to go...and Miss Scankey then asks: "David, where do you think you are going?"
"HUH?" You said I could go to the bathroom, Miss Scankey"
Teacher responds: "HUH IS NOT A WORD" and..."Yes, I said you CAN go to the restroom, however, I did not say you MAY go to the restroom. Of course, everyone CAN go to the bathroom, but you David, MAY only go if you ask correctly"!
"HUH?" (cue entire class laughing at my expense. And I am about to piss my pants). Finally figuring it out, after being thoroughly humiliated, I made it to the restroom in time. But, after that, I NEVER forgot to use the word MAY when asking, and never, ever, ever never, "HUH'd" again in class!
And, I have ALWAYS appreciated my Teachers since. (Once I had realized the lesson learned, of course). Now? Seems I have gone through a state of regression. Anyone know of a good punctuation, grammar and creative writing class? I think my blog may be suffering LOL!
Anyway, we have no clue where Bella picked this one up. Oh sure, we slang it, we gibberish at times, we have our own silly phrases and words that Bella repeats and giggles...and we laugh. But "HUH"...UH UH, Dunno where she got it. Just about every time we ask for her, she responds now with "HUH"...GAWD I Hate that word. And, for some reason, it seems that much more grinding on the ears when a 3 year old says it...Arrrgh!
I will tell you this, by the time she starts school in two year, HUH, and CAM VS MAY will be deeply seeded in her memory. She will know within that two years, how and when to use the proper phrases... Of course, by then, one can only shudder at the thought of "those" words she will be learning in school. Even back when I was in school, all those years ago, I recall vividly, the glee and pride I felt when I learned a new word. (Bad words were the most fun!)
That is for another post!
Peace!
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17 BellaBuddies left comments! Ya know ya wanna!!:
LOL @ Partridge family lunch box, that's too funny.
Don't you just hate when teachers do that? It's like the all time how do you spell this word? They reply with look it up in the dictionary. What is up with that? If you can't spell it, how can you look it up?
too funny. I miss my Masters of the Universe lunchbox...
I am far from a proper English user(see what I mean).
You might want to get going on "like" as well. Our middle schooler can usually control her "likes", but with her friends it's like every second like word. Arg!
Another phenomenon are the kids who can't enter into a conversation without starting with "Guess what?" It's truly an amazing thing. I had one boy a couple years back who was simply incapable of speaking with starting with "Guess what?"
I had to get a new favorite lunch box every year. I loved it when they were still metal. You could maim someone with those things. Of course being a country boy The Dukes of Hazzard was my favorite.
I think I had a Brady Bunch lunchbox. :)
My mom nipped the "Huh" usage at home by...not answering us. Example:
Mom: "Missy!" (that's what they used to call me)
Me: "Huh?"
Mom: Silence.
Me: "HUH?"
Mom: Silence.
Me: getting up and going to where mom was.
If I happened to be in the room with her in the first place, it only took one "Huh" and one pregnant pause before I snapped out of it and would say whatever was appropriate. :)
Then my kids did it, and I had to correct THEM. :)
If the worst you child comes up with is 'huh' you've got nothing to worry about. And if I could manage to teach myself to stop myself from swearing 100+ times a day I wouldn't have anything to worry about either.
I only had Patridge Family ALBUMS, not lunch boxes. There were six of us at home and we brown-bagged it. If one got a lunch box, we'd all have to get one, so brown lunch bags were it. I feel deprived. I would have LOVED a Patridge Family lunch box.
The photo of Bella is very cute. I thought it was her first day of preschool outfit. No matter, when she goes to school she'll be the best dressed there.
HUH? I think all kids pick this up at one point or another. The word that bothers me is WHAT said in a certain tone of voice. You could almost hear, WHAT, you're bothering me!
I was an English/Communications major in college. I love writing and manipulating the language. Do I always use the English correctly? No. But mostly it's deliberate. And I hate to say it, I always look up words I don't know how to spell . . . sorry.
I think my favorite was a GI Joe lunchbox I had when I was in school.
I used to have a teacher that would crucify you if you used 'done' in relation to something you did. If you said 'I'm done'. She'd stop writing on the chalk board, and without even looking, she would say your name and go 'turkeys are done, people are finished' and resume writing on the board. That has been burned into my memory forever.
I feel left out of the whole lunch box thing. My family usually brown bagged it. Although those bags were pretty sweet too!
You poor thing! A Partridge Family lunch box and an embarrassing self soiling in front of the class! How many years did it take to live it all down?
Teachers who humiliate students to make them use precisely the 'right' word are Pharisees. What would be wrong with just saying, "Yes, you *may* use the restroom"?
How adorable is that Bella outfit!
When I was 7 I was at summer bible day camp and was so shy and embarrassed to ask to go to the bathroom that I peed my pants on the way home. And then got spanked.
I learned to say a lot after that.
HUH?? lol just kidding
i'm so grammatically, politically, psychologically, you-name-it-ically incorrect and here i am going back to college lol
i used to have a bugaloos lunchbox and i loved it. wish i still had it, back a few yrs ago it was worth a pretty penny. *sigh*
i had a big crush on david cassidy way back when *double sigh* lol
i'm sure you'll get bella out of the 'huh' habit. when you're finished w her, can you work on me? but i'm thinking 'huh' is the least of my speaking habits :-/ can we say, 'like a sailor?'
I hate the "HUH" too, lots and lots and lots. I just ignore my daughter when she does it. If I don't respond to it, she usually responds to whatever I said that got the "huh" in the first place.
It does make me want to just rip my hair out and shriek, though. ugh!
I guess I should kick the 'huh' habit as well if we're going to have kids.
John
Huh? Whatever.
Want to see me grit my teeth, just say those two words in combination, or the second word. It became a favorite of the oldest. I ended up yelling at her whenever she said "Whatever" in THAT tone.
My lunchbox was Penelope Pitstop. I rag my sons constantly about can/may (me and him/he and I). Unfortunately, I don't think the teachers do it so often. Probably because most of them grew up saying, "Huh?"