“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw
Thirty or more years ago, my friend’s mom successfully saved her friend from choking one night at a restaurant. Many times she’s proudly recounted the story of saving a life by using the Heineken remover technique.
It doesn’t matter the number of times her son has told her that it’s the Heimlich maneuver. She sticks to her version of the name because she likes it better. And no, her friend wasn’t choking on a Heineken at the time.
Hearing that story reminds me of the delightful things we get wrong. My son, six-year-old Mr. D calls the pamphlet included with products to show us how to assemble them constructions. And that makes a lot of sense.
He also likes it when we all cuzzle up on the couch. Since Cooper the dog is often involved, this combo of cuddle and nuzzle is pretty apt.
When ten-year-old Miss O was two or three, she called the colander the homey hokey. The Magic Eight Ball was the Magic Ate Ball and we didn’t even know we thinking about it as different things.
As I kid, I thought I heard my dad tell me that brown fuzzy creatures were called Mormons. That made it confusing the first time I met a kid that was a practicing Mormon because I wondered if they worshipped brown fuzzy creatures. Come to find out, those are marmots.
Communicating is hard. It’s amazing we ever get our point across.
Do you have some favorite words in your history or lexicon?
(featured photo is from Pexels)
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Surprised By Joy 
My oldest daughter replaced banana with bazah for a while. Of course, adults often use real words and still can’t communicate. Here is a tip. Don’t ask people if they understand you. Instead, ask them to describe what they think you said.
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First of all, I love that GB Shaw quote as it is so true. Thanks. Your examples of misunderstandings are so funny. Here’s another one. My then 10-year-old daughter came home from school all excited. Apparently, there was a disease going around the school, and the children were not to wear each other’s hats or use each other’s combs. The disease was called “head lights”!! We laugh about that one to this day.
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Hilarious Wynne! I think my kids have all had their words. The one that still stands out for me is Jeff trying to say chipotle. It always came out sounding like chip-lloyd. We still remind him of that when we can.
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What a perfect quote!
To this day, we are not positive where my youngest got “pakopee” for cereal. The closest I can come is he was trying to say Rice Crispies…
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