Kids do say the darndest things!

Uncle's Resort, Minnesota 1942I first heard of Anne Lamott when she was a guest on NPR and have been a big fan of hers ever since; in fact I should own a share of Traveling Mercies since I’ve purchased at least a dozen copies as gifts.

For some inexplicable reason the only book of hers I never got around to reading was Bird by Bird so I bought a copy a few days ago and am now in the process. This is a laugh-out-loud book on "writing and life."

I'm paraphrasing this but one story she tells is about her then 3-1/2 year old son who took a set of toy keys and purposely locked himself out of the house. She heard him fiddling with the lock and trying to make the keys work. The next thing she heard was him saying, “Oh, sh*%!” She quickly opened the door and told him that he had just used a bad word, one that he and mommy shouldn’t use and she wasn’t going to say it anymore and neither should he. He was very contrite and agreed but then wondered if she wanted to know why he had used that word. She said, okay – so he whispered to her it was because he was so mad at the f#^%*$g keys!