Language Barrier

I had no idea that living in an all boy home, I don't count I'm a mom, could create a language barrier. OK, that's not strictly true, I did realize at some point that my children were entering kindergarten with no ability to use female pronouns: her, hers, she. But until a week ago I had no idea that my children were suffering from a much deeper problem.

We were at 3 and 4s' baseball game, 1 was scheduled for a drive at A1 driving school. As he and I turned to head for the car a daddy on a bike pulling a kiddie trailer followed by his 6 or 7 year old daughter on a cute 'girl bike' rode past on the wide sidewalk that wanders through the ball park to accommodate bikers, skateboarders, scooters and brave pedestrians.

The daddy was thirty feet or so ahead of his daughter and as he rode past the snack shack his daughter lost her balance and fell over. Another man and I rushed over to help the little girl who lay in a heap tangled up with her bike whimpering. The man who had come to help realizing the only thing more traumatic to that age of girl then falling off her bike was having a strange man hovering over her went to get the dad.

I had watched the fall I knew that she was favoring the side that didn't get bumped and I knew that the incoherent whimpering she was using to communicate was more from embarrassment and fear then pain. I stayed by her until her daddy came back and then the two of us tried to talk to her. All the questions she was asked were answered with whimpers and unintelligible little girl responses. The dad helped her up and brushed her off as 1, who had been hovering close by watching the whole scene, and I headed to our car.

As we walked Jacob ask, "Mom, was that girl speaking English because her dad didn't sound like he was from another country; but, I couldn't understand a word the little girl was saying."

"Son," I replied, "that was a different language, that was seven year old girl".

My poor boys they have a language barrier!