You know those times in your parenting life when there isn't quite the right word to describe what you are going through? You know, like Toyphoon, which is when "Recreational activities by kids that leave playroom looking like it was decimated by hurricane" or Macoustics, which is the "frequency of a mother’s voice that her children find so easy to ignore."
Well friends, now you have a word for that and so much more.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Ruhalter, author of The KidDictionary: The Book of Words Parents Need to Describe Their Kids. I first came across Eric on Twitter, when I was some of his definitions. In fact, I'm pretty sure one of them is responsible for the Pepsi on my keyboard, but I digress.
Eric was kind enough to take a few minutes of his day to answer some questions for my Domestically Challenged readers.
1. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO WRITE THE
KIDDICTIONARY?
I decided to write The KidDictionary: Words
Parents Need To Describe Their Kids, when it became apparent that the
English vocabulary severely lacked the terminology needed to put into
words the many and varied unusual behaviors that children exhibit.
Parents arent like normal people so the normal words just arent
enough. (see videos with examples of many words at www.TheKidDictionary.com)
The first time
that the need for The KidDictionary really struck me was one mornining
when I was watching my son. He was looking in the mirror at the space
where one of his teeth used to be. It was the morning after his visit
from the tooth fairy so he had a dollar bill in one hand, and I asked
him, So what do you think? And he replied, I think if I knock out all
my teeth, Ill be rich! And I thought to
myself, there ought to be a word for that, and its probably a
combination of the words Orthodontics and Entrepreneur. And I came
up with Orthodontrepreneur (ORTH-o-dahn-truh-prenn-orr) A child who
wants to knock all of his own teeth out in the interest of a hefty
payday from the tooth fairy.
From there I came up with many many other words. And after
people heard about what I was doing and saw the first volume of The
KidDictionary, they all had situations that they wanted words to
describe. So since then theres been no shortage of inspiration.
Originally I wrote this solely to amuse people, but what I found was that people found it funny, but ALSO gained a sense of connectedness with other parents. It was sort of a reminder that a lot of what theyre going through as parents, were ALL going through as parents. And I was really happy to hear that from people.
2. HOW DOES YOUR WIFE FEEL ABOUT THE
DICTIONARY? I MEAN, DO YOU WALK AROUND YOUR HOUSE MAKING UP WORDS ALL
THE TIME? DO YOUR KIDS TRY TO HELP TOO?
My wife is a fan of The KidDictionary. Shes
been super supportive of all the work and time I put into The
KidDicitonary and all the other creative endeavors I undertake She always has and I feel really lucky for it. And I dont think Im obnoxious about the words. Im
definitely frequently thinking about them and coming up with ideas but
its all inside my head. Im not one of those guys whos really
demonstrative with his humor and always going for the laugh. I think by and large Im pretty quiet.
The kids like
it, too. They enjoy being the models in the quaint black and white
photos that accompany each KidDictionary word and KiDefinition. My
oldest son is even starting to make up words of his own. He had a
section in his classroom newspaper called The KidDictionary Corner.
Which reminds me, I need to call my attorney
and have him shut down.
3. WHAT
ARE A COUPLE OF YOUR FAVES?
I love
them all because theyre all little pieces of various stages in my kids
lives. But some Im particularly fond of are:
WISHJACK (v.) To blow out
the candles on another childs birthday cake.
STOCKTEASE (n.): A child who lets you buy large quantities of their
favorite food at the grocery store and then immediately decides that
they dont like it anymore.
TOYPHOON (n.): Routine
recreational activities of children that leave their playroom looking
like it was decimated by a hurricane.
TWIRPLE
(v.): When a child playing baseball gets to
third base on a hit that didnt make it out of the infield.
SHITISTICS (n.): The wildly
inaccurate stats spouted by an 8 year old at a sporting event. (I think this can apply to some of the grown ups in the stands too~Alana).
GARBOFLAGE (v.): To hide a
piece of your childs artwork under other trash in the waste basket so
they dont catch you throwing it away.
4. WHAT'S THE FUNNIEST/CRAZIEST THING YOU HAVE HAD HAPPEN TO YOU
AS A PARENT?
Since Ive become a parent, the craziness has
been nonstop. I dont know which moment would be the most extreme
Possibly the 8 hour car ride home from my
in-laws with a 2 year old with a stomach bug whose vomit was so
voluminous that by time we arrived home it had taken every stitch of
clothing we had in all of our suitcases to sop it all up.
Or maybe
the times we brought each of our
children when they were about a year old to The Running of the Bulls in
Pamplona, Spain based on our theory that theres no more effective way
to prompt a child to get up and walk than by putting them in the path of
a pissed-off charging bull.
Or perhaps the time when we only had enough money for 4 of the 5
of us to go on vacation so we had to have a competition to see who
could go and I dictated that we decide with a single elimination Tug of
War Tournament, and I beat the pants off each of them. Granted some were
under 50 pounds at the time. But whose problem is that?
Two of those 3 things are lies, by the way. I will leave you to speculate.
**
See what I mean? Funny and the kind of things that parents find funny.
You can get The KidDictionary on Amazon or from Eric's website. Also, if there is a word you want created, feel free to email Eric or hit him up on Twitter or his Facebook page.
Reading this was a riot. It's been Soooo long since my kids were kids that I forgot about some of these incidents. I may buy the book for my daughter who has my granddaughter.
Thanks for stopping by today thru SITS
Posted by: pbenjaytoo | July 16, 2010 at 07:23 AM