Deez'you

I have four kids, three of whom are teens, and one who is three. When Joel, the three-year-old, began to say the names of his siblings, I understood "Sa" (Sarah) and liked "Babbaw" (his name for Stephen), but I was mystified as to why he called Ben (his oldest brother) "Deez'you."

That is, until one day I was calling down the stairs to Ben who was in the basement. (I hoped he was doing schoolwork as it was 10 a.m. on a weekday.) I asked, "Ben, did you switch the clothes over to the dryer?" He answered that he had. "Did you put that dark load into the washer?" Eureka! Before he could answer, I had figured out how Joel thought his brother's name was "Deez'you." He had heard me say many times to his siblings, "Did you do this, did you do that?"

How humbling! It made me stop and think how often I communicate with my kids based on what they've done or should be doing rather than about what they're thinking or how they're feeling.

But we got a good laugh out of Joel's nomenclature.