Care to join me on a trip to the moon?

Last night before karate class began, my daughter Kayla and I were on the mats stretching a bit before Sensei entered and we would begin our structured warmup time as a group. I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the standard layout of a karate dojo, but it’s basically a large open space (sort of like a small gym) except the floor area is covered with large mats for safety during training. This type of setup accommodates large groups being able to train simultaneously. Thursday evening classes at the dojo are for all ages (12 through adult) as well as belt ranks, and there’s typically a decent number and variety of people that gather to train.

As it was, I was standing up on the mats approximating head level as I threw front kicks to stretch my hamstring muscles and glutes (back of the thighs and butt). At the same time, I was listening to my daughter’s conversation with one of the younger siblings of a friend of hers, who also trains in our dojo. The sibling was sitting on the bench next to the mats, just watching and chatting casually with Kayla. I’d guess the cute little girl must have been about four or five years of age, maximum.

As I mentioned, my daughter was on the mats next to me sitting down while stretching out, and at the same time talking to this little girl. I heard her explaining to the child about the homework she had to do before karate class. It was obvious the girl adores my daughter (who is 13) and really looks up to her, because she was hanging on every word that she said while she spoke. I didn’t find this unusual at all; oftentimes little girls will look up to older girls as role models, and my daughter is a good student academically as well as a brown belt disciplined in the art of karate.

In any event, I was only half paying attention to their conversation when I heard my daughter tell the little girl that she had been “studying for her upcoming science test on the moon”. Well, the little girl obviously misunderstood the way Kayla phrased what she had been doing, because the next thing I knew she excitedly jumped up, ran to Kayla and exclaimed, “You mean your mom’s really gonna let you go?!”

Haaa!!!! Hee-hee!!!

Let me tell you, THAT certainly got my full attention!

Oh my goodness, it was so cute! Everyone stretching in the vicinity who had also overheard their conversation realized at the same time that the little girl must have misunderstood the context, and we all suddenly burst into fits of laughter. The child actually thought Kayla would be going to the moon to take a science test! She said it so sincerely and so innocently, that we simply couldn’t help ourselves from cracking up at the misunderstanding.

Boy-oh-boy, it’s a good thing that in addition to exercising my body regularly I have always done Kegel exercises to maintain tone as well, or I swear I would have pee’d my pants right there on the spot from laughing so hard!

Oh well, I’d be willing to bet that my daughter will think twice about how she phrases things to young children again in the future, now knowing that they take things VERY LITERALLY! And
it’ll be a long time before I forget that one! Silly and simple!

Kids say the funniest things sometimes, don’t they? Can you think of any similar silly things that your kids have ever said or done?

(P.S. – By the way, dojo means “school” in Japanese and Sensei means “teacher”.)