Shaun Groves
Friendships begin on common playground.
Sambhaji led me by the hand into the giant fish tank containing Chick-fil-A’s playground. The smell of sock feet. The humidity of a dozen tiny mouth breathers panting through plastic tunnels. The reverberating shrieks of terror and fun.
I took my seat alongside the other moms.
“Hi.”
The greeting came from down around my ankles.
“Hi,” I answered. She was probably two. Blonde pigtails. Light blue anime eyes and cherub cheeks. Snug pink pants over an expanding diaper.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“I’m Shaun. And I bet you are Big Sister.”
She stared vacantly up at me. A taller older version of herself answered me from the nearby slide. “No, she’s not a big sister. I am,” she boasted.
“Well, help me out here,” I asked. “Her shirt says ‘BIG SISTER’ in great big letters. But she’s not a big sister?”
“It’s hang me town,” she sighed with both hands on her hips.
“It’s what?”
“HANG! ME! TOWN!”
Apparently I look as clueless as I in fact am.
“It was my big sister shirt but it’s small for me so my mommy gave it to my sister. Hang me town,” she explained.
“A lot of my clothes are hang me town too,” I shared. “I love hang me town clothes.”
Jessica says:
All of the Bowman kids clothes are Hang Me Town.
Kristin says:
Perhaps had Ben not been beating on the table with chopsticks … er, drumsticks … you would have heard more of his 2-year-old words yesterday. Of course, I don’t always understand it and I live with him. Cluelessness and 2-year-old kids seem to co-exist.
Kit says:
Oh that’s cute! Reminds me of the time I overheard two boys at a playground singing the popular 60’s tune, “Secret Agent Pants.”
Carly says:
Love this!
My stepfather had a massive heart attack a week ago Friday, followed by emergency open heart surgery and then, miraculously, a heart transplant on Thursday.
When apprised of the news, a dear friend’s daughter pronounced that he was getting a “hang me town” heart.
FzxGkJssFrk says:
LOL. Literally.
And here I was expecting some horror story about criminal justice in the Third World.
Christine says:
This is exactly why I love kids so much! They entertain effortlessly.
Other than socks and underwear, which seem like a fortune to me for a family of six, we all wear hang me town clothes too. Only many times at thrift stores, the tags are still on and they’re new! A gift from God those clothes are!
Melissa Jones says:
“I took my seat alongside the other moms.”
heehee…..
Jennifer, Snapshot says:
Yeah–that’s what got me too. Shaun the mom blogger.
Sharon @ Hiking Toward Home says:
me too!!
Kelli says:
I love hang me town clothes.
I also love children’s mispronunciations. Take, for example, my children who learned the song “I’m Sexy and I Know It” from the neighbor boys, complete with pelvic thrust. Good times…
After a few minutes of listening to them sing it over and over I loudly declared that they were to sing it no more and, surprisingly, they listened and stopped…for a couple of days.
Yesterday my four year old came walking in the room looking quite puzzled. “Mom, what’s dat song you said we’re not ‘posed to sing anymore? I forgetted da words.” Then his tiny little freckle face cleared and his eyes lit up as it all started to come back.
He walked out of the room bobbing his head up and down singing, “I’m sexy in my pants…”
*sigh*
Sharon O says:
I just LOVE little ones, they are so entertaining.
Lisa H says:
So cute! My kids were entertaining me this week by singing me a song…where it is supposed to say, “whom then shall I fear” they kept singing, “who men shall I fear”…..cracked me up!
Jonnia says:
Sounds like a great name for a second-hand clothing store! Thanks for the giggle this morning!
Sharon @ Hiking Toward Home says:
Oh thank you so much! This post brought a much needed laugh as I read it in my email today!
deborah says:
You just gotta love Hang Me Town clothes! They are the best…along with the things that kiddos say!
Karen says:
So many of my kids’ mis-speaks have become part of our family vocabulary. I think this one will forever be in yours!
Dionna says:
I love the way kids talk. So cute.
Lisa @stretchmarkmama says:
I was singing along to my favorite pop station the other day, “If I lay here…if I just lay here…would you lie with me, and just forget the WORDS?” My husband said, “You *do* realize it’s ‘forget the WORLD?'”
[I didn’t. Oh the irony.]
FzxGkJssFrk says:
D’oh. I made the same mistake…
Jessica says:
Speaking of children misunderstanding lyrics, my Eleven Year Old recently revealed to me that all this time she thought Beyonce was saying “I’m a singing lady”.
And for some reason that made me laugh. A lot.
Jenn says:
Thank you for this laugh today. And for so eloquently describing the interior of the CFA playground. Sock feet… hee hee.
Lindy Groves Jeter says:
Shaun, your neice Kymbree (my youngest daughter), was complemented on her outfit by a teacher at school. When the teacher asked Kymbree if she got a new outfit, Kymbree said, “No, it’s from the attic.” Thank goodness for big sister’s clothes, that are kept in BIG Rubbermaid boxes in the attic for future use! 😉
Lindy Groves Jeter says:
Oops! I meant complimented. 🙂
Muniyrah says:
In response to the article about fighting in front of your kids, it reminded me of something I read taken from Proverbs 18:6, “The lips of one who is stupid enter into quarreling.” Just as we need to show graciousness and restraint when speaking with workmates or with strangers, we also need to do so at home. Venting anger without concern for the consequences can cause serious damage to our own and others’ spiritual, emotional, and physical health (Prov. 18:7) Bad feelings-manifestations of our imperfect nature-must be controlled. Abusive speech, ridicule, contempt, and hateful wrath are wrong. (Col. 3:8; Jas. 1:20) They can destroy precious relationships with other people and with Jehovah. Jesus taught: “Everyone who continues wrathful with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice; but whoever addresses his brother with an unspeakable word of contempt will be accountable to the Supreme Court; whereas whoever says, ‘You despicable fool!’ will be liable to the fiery Gehenna” – Matt. 5:22.