I am the oldest of five children. While I was growing up my mother would sometimes call me using the name of one of my brothers. Once she even addressed me using the name of one sister. At fifteen I was indignant, and stayed indignant for years!
Now with children of my own, I find myself sometimes using the wrong name when addressing one of my children. I have apologized to my mother.
I had a flash of insight this week. I figured out why Charlie Chan referred to his sons by birth order. For example he would say "number one son" or "number two son." It was because while parents may get confused on the name that goes with a particular child, we always know the order each child came to earth.
Maybe I'll start calling my children by their order, and not worry about their names any more.
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Technorati tags: children, names, Charlie Chan
1 comment:
I've gone the George Foreman route. When I get flustered, I just call all of them Fred. For a while, they insisted that they should then be Fred, Frederick and Fritz.
What is truly funny is that I can yell Fred and just the one I wanted will look up. It's like they know that they are in need of attention.
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