Grown-ups say the darndest things...

[arib]

A question I get very often, both from random strangers and my own grandmother tends to run along the lines of, "is your daughter a good baby or a bad baby?"

I'm never quite sure how to answer this one. It's not like she robs banks or abuses animals or anything. I know that they really want to know whether or not she cries a lot, but it always comes across like they're imposing some moral or value judgement. :-)

Another fun thing was when a friend of Aliza's grandmother, who definitely was trying to compliment RAB came out with the following:

"Kinnahora,* your child is too beautiful. A bird should crap on her head!"

I was able to stammer out some sort of a thank you. I would have gotten upset, but she seemed so genuine and complimentary about it that I let it slide.


*A contraction of the Yiddish "k'neyna hora," which more or less translates as "without giving you an evil eye." Hearing it pronounced Kinnahora makes me want to open a kosher Irish bar called Ken O'Hara's.

Comments

[beki.livejournal.com]

I think its a generational thing. Italian grandmothers do it too. Apparently, if you compliment someone's child, they are afraid that something bad will happen. I don't know if you are insulting the angels or faeries or whatever so that they will take revenge or what. It's weird, but some of the comments really make you want to say wtf?

[rosefox]

Hearing it pronounced Kinnahora makes me want to open a kosher Irish bar called Ken O'Hara's.

DO IT. Fleishig, of course, so you can serve hamburgers and cottage pie and turkey bangers & mash. Do you know how thrilled I would be to have GUARANTEED dairy-free bangers & mash at a pub? A lot thrilled, is how.

Also there should be lots of cheerful sayings painted on the walls in uncial Hebrew.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Uncial Hebrew. My brain just broke.

[arib.livejournal.com]

Having people in both my and Aliza's families who have actually worked in the food industry means that I know better than to actually try and open a restaurant. :-)

That said, I'd be interested in trying to come up with a passable kosher bangers and mash.

I had to look up uncial script. That'd definitely be neat, but I'd be torn between Yiddish and Hebrew. :-)

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Funny, when I read the first comment, all I can think of is "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

It's not like she robs banks

So far as you know.

[arib.livejournal.com]

True enough. We don't actually know that she stays in daycare the whole day...