Happy Hump Day!
Today I’m thinking about our very special MotherTalkers lexicon. Over the years we’ve developed our very own language and short hand, but I’m not sure that we’ve ever stopped to catalogue it in one place. So why not now?
I’ll throw the first few out there, please feel free to add to the list!
SUCK IT – made famous by the inimitable Ms. Tina Fey, who I am certain would fit in fabulously among us. Can’t you just picture it? Her user name could be Liz Lemon 
juice bag – a family-friendly version of douche bag. First coined by one of musicteacher’s son’s, who misheard some potty-mouthed juice bag at school.
Old Maybe – what my daughter used to call Old Navy. “Because maybe I want to buy this shirt, and maybe I don’t!”
Who wants to take a stab at SOD and the ol’ sack o’ doorknobs? What else have I missed?
Anything else on your mind today? Chat away!
we still call it Old Maybe.
my favorite is “stabby” — I think that’s a snarkymom phrase? I use it constantly.
the SOD is courtesy of my mom — who could throw a Stare of Death that would wither the most obnoxious of people… it’s a handy skill to have.
I will say, the SoD got me through big chunks of that meeting yesterday. It’s very effective, plus it was entertaining watching them just talk and talk and talk while I stared. They just dig themselves right into a hole.
Wish I could take credit for stabby, but I don’t think that was me. One of the Rachels maybe? I like the variation “Fork Stabby” myself.
it might have been our aussie rachel..
the SOD is really the greatest thing ever isn’t it. it’s especially effective when one has glasses to look over. my mom would be so proud
So what came of the meeting?
It was mixed. They basically admitted that they held him out of the class because of his 504 (which is illegal) and we ultimately agreed that re-arranging his schedule to move him into the advanced class at this point would be too disruptive. They’re going to give him the final for the class he should have been in so they can figure out where the holes in his understanding are, then he’ll spend the rest of this year working one-on-one with our G&T person, filling in those gaps. (My guess is there won’t be many of them.) Then he’ll skip advanced 7th grade math next year and do…something they haven’t figured out yet. It could be the Algebra topics class the other kids are doing, or it could be an online course through our virtual charter school or Johns Hopkins or something else. I was very proud of DH- at one point they started making noises about just leaving H where he was because “we don’t always get to be fully challenged” and DH cut the principal off and told her that was simply unacceptable. She started again and he interrupted again- “Un. Acceptable.” Long quiet pause, then the counselor jumped in with what was ultimately the proposal we accepted.
H was bummed about not being in the class, but I think he’s okay this morning. I bribed him with an offer to take an online computer security course he wants to sign up for and that perked him up a bit.
Yay for your DH!
Well done. Now to keep the pressure. on for next year. Glad DH stepped up to the plate, too
Is algebra 1 not the standard for 8th grade where you are? (I know common core is shooting this all to h3ll, but for now. . .) Because the math genius in my neighborhood got through algebra and geometry in middle school, then raced through the math in high school and was doing differential equations or some such post calc class at the nearby engineering university by senior year. It sounds like that would totally be up his alley, if they would/could jump start the math now. Or is it standard there to wait and do algebra 1 in high school?
They have an algebra 1 class in 8th grade that some students can take, but most kids don’t bother with it because it doesn’t count at the high school- they all have to take it again unless they can test out. Apparently the test is so nit picky and specific to the high school’s approach to Algebra that no one can test out, no matter where they’ve taken it. Very frustrating. One of the possibilities for this cohort of 8th graders (H’s 6th grade class of advanced math kids) is a special topics course that’s nothing but prep for the Algebra 1 exam, taught by the high school algebra teacher. That sounds like hell to me, but who knows where H will be by then. He may go the private school route if he can get a scholarship or e
No algebra until high school? That sucks – I can see why H is frustrated. Even with algebra offered in 8th grade, I was so bored and offended (mostly offended I think) by my 7th grade math curriculum that I refused to do any homework at all for that class. I can’t imagine how I’d have survived if I’d had to kill two years that way. CA math standards are kind of a mess but I think the majority of students take algebra in 8th here.
How much math does the high school offer? Do they even have calc, or does it stop with pre calc if the norm is to have 9th grade algebra? I’m assuming you have year long classes and not the idiotic block schedule that we have. I’ll spare you all my rant.
We do have the block- which I actually love- and I think there are a lot of options math-wise at the high school. (With the block they can move through courses twice as quickly.) Some kids also go over to the college for courses- usually in 11th and 12th grades, but sometimes earlier.
Here the moving through more quickly has not panned out so well. Bunches of classes end up being year long – band, newspaper, yearbook are the obvious ones, but more and more AP classes are being converted to year long because the teachers feel a semester is too short. Jr and Sr. AP English, AP chem, calc ab & bc, and kiddo has heard that next year APUS History will be as well. Kiddo is trying to figure out how to get everything in she wants to take next year because of that.
All that said, kiddo likes block much better than I do. And her opinion should probably count for more.
Well done, both of you! I have to say I read ‘online computer security course’ as ‘airport security’. It didn’t seem thrilling
I think it has more to do with encryption and stuff like that.
I love “stabby” and it always gets lots of reaction from others who want to start using it.
yet, regarding yesterday’s discussion, I don’t see “that makes me want to chop a labia” having the same staying power
Lol. Maybe not for anger but with respect to the excessively Botoxed? “Based on her looks, I’m guessing she probably has had her labia chopped.”
Speaking of Botox, I read somewhere recently that they have Botox parties, kind of like Tupperware or candle or jewelry parties, where a dentist injects everybody’s forehead. I could see this in the Queen of Versailles world.
Well, I introduced you all to “nebby,” our regional word for nosy.
And Happy Birthday On the Board! Lol
I’m itching for the next MT birthday so I can wish someone Happy Birthday On the Board! I think that’s my favorite one ever.
Yes! This!
Heh. I knew “nebby” before you introduced it to the cool kids. (Post-Gazette internship ’98 FTW!)
And “gah.” I wanna say that was GiGi’s word? It’s not an mt exclusive, but we use it a lot.
Not to threadjack, but today is my Dad’s birthday. Wish I was with my Mom, but I’m at work and she’s in Florida, visiting a friend.
Aw honey. Hugs. Glad she’s not alone today, but wish you could be with her.
Thinking of you and your family today, Sue. It’s a tough go to get through holidays and birthdays.
The only thing I can tell you my sweet friend is after this year it will be remarkably easier… I am at the point now where I’ll realize I’ve blown right past their birthdays or the anniversaries of their deaths.. time is an amazing healer.. and the longer time goes on the more you realize that those ‘landmark’ dates are less important than the way you remember them every day… in little ways. I have long indepth conversations with my mom every night.. occassionally I see a flash of my sister in Liza… my dad is more of a blurry memory right now, I honestly don’t even remember what his voice sounded like… but I do think of him from time to time… the first two years are very emotional and very hard.. give yourself time and space to navigate them but also be open to the relief and healing that comes with the passage of time… it will come and it will get better I promise
Hugs, Sue. Thinking of you and yours
Hugs, Sue.
Hugs. Glad she can be doing something fun right now.
I’m sorry, Sue. Hugs.
Hugs, Sue, big hugs. Birthdays are difficult.
Holy carp, and holy cats.
I know “snarky” is not an MT term, specifically, but I don’t think I used it regularly until I heard MTs using it…..so I associate it with this group!
Special snowflake!
Yes, this is a good one!
Ooh, yes.
Are you allowed to be unhappy at a job that is basically perfect?
(1) You don’t need permission to be happy or unhappy.
(2) If you are unhappy, it isn’t perfect.
(3) What’s up? What’s wrong with the supposed-to-be-perfect job?
(4) Hugs.
agree on all four points!
What is making you unhappy?
Well said!
I was confused- thought that was part of the lexicon and I missed it.
You’re allowed to be whatever you are. You know that.
Yes.
Asshat!
This and juicebag are my favorites.
Another good one!
For a glossary, we will also need the explanations of what the expressions mean
“Meet fat baldy”–what you can say instead of flipping someone off, spurred by Lucy’s innocent planned introduction of her 1st grade teacher to her middle finger that is missing it’s fingertip and nail. This one had a big presence for a week or two and seems to have died out.
Oh, no, Fat Baldy is still in my lexicon. I urge revival!
Let’s not forget “Beloved Child of God” or “Bless Her Heart.” (Says the minister.)
I think sister Q may need that one today. I agree, we shouldn’t allow that one to disappear. We could designate it ‘forgotten MT word of the week’
I had thought about posting that one, actually.
I missed that (I wish I had more time to be on MTers….) but lurve it.
I know it was already defined, but I wanted to say that “juicebag” is in my regular IRL lexicon. LOVE IT.
Juicebag and holy carp are probably the only ones I use IRL. I can’t use Katie’s SoD, because it falls too close to my own SoD – the Stare of Doom. I don’t think it’s quite the same thing but it is too important a parenting tool to exchange for something with wider applicability.
And BTW my SoD is apparently pronounced “mom’s stare of doooooom”; haunted house voice preferred.
I’d like some feedback on thought processes, if anyone can help out here. When I think, I always hear words. Even if I’m envisioning a picture of something, I hear the words to describe it. I’m beginning to think that my DS-11 is a picture thinker. He has always sort of stuttered and stammered as he searches around for the right word. I thought it was a process of thinking out loud as opposed to forming thoughts and then thinking them, but we recently stayed at a hotel that had a buffet breakfast. The boys went down on their own, and I later had this conversation with my younger son:
Me: What did you have for breakfast?
DS: Bacon and toast and… and fruit… the green fruit.
Me: An apple?
DS: No, the other green thing.
Me: Honeydew melon?
DS: Yeah, honeydew. And the orange thing.
Me: Cantaloupe?
DS: Yeah, cantaloupe.
So yesterday, I asked him if he sees pictures or hears words in his head. He immediately and enthusiastically said pictures (as in, duh!). I’m wondering what this means in terms of learning. He is very smart, but he isn’t a good student. He’s easily distracted, disorganized, unfocused, the last one copying something off the board. He’s very social and loves to talk, but often you need to know what he’s saying in order to understand what he’s saying. Could these things be the product of picture thinking in a verbal world? Are the specific strategies we can use to make school easier for him? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?
that would be “as opposed to forming thoughts and then speaking them”
That sounds about right. Aussieyank pointed me toward this book a few years ago, which I found very helpful. It’s pricy, but head and shoulders better than anything else I read.
http://www.amazon.com/Upside-Down-Brilliance-The-Visual-Spatial-Learner/dp/193218600X/ref=pd_sim_b_5
Just ordered it. Thanks!
Interesting, that sounds a lot like my DS1 in some ways, as does your description of your son, Chile Pepper. I don’t think he’s spatially oriented though. But a lot of the characteristics seem to describe him.
A baseball whiz definitely has some strong spatial skills. There’s an awful lot that goes into throwing, catching, and hitting a small ball.
That’s true. That kind of spatial, he is good at. Things like jigsaw puzzles, not as much. Maybe I am thinking of it the wrong way?
oof–I feel like I’ve been “thinking of it the wrong way” for years. I’m hoping I’m finally catching a clue here.
I love it when I’m useful.
He’s an artist! Exciting! He’s using the right side of brain and language is taking a back seat to image.
As far as school, sequencing may be difficult (organizing thoughts for speaking or writing). Listening to talks without visual accompaniments might be boring, or worse.
Giving him tactile stuff to help him understand and demonstrate his understanding will help him. Life will get better for him when school is out of his life.
P.S. I married one of these and he is fantastic. We get excellent word salad around here at times — “pied a terre” for “au pair,” “sidewinders” for “Top Siders.” Endless fun! Mine definitely thinks out loud and his overuse of pronouns without referents can make be a bit dizzy but there’s so much more great stuff, it’s definitely worth it.
Sweet. And yes to the pronouns–and he just doesn’t get it when I ask him “WHAT did x?” or whatever. It just confuses him.
I hadn’t thought artist, but this is, in fact, the son who is becoming increasingly interested in music. Even before he was really into it, his teacher would shake his head and comment about how DS was advancing despite never practicing. I’m not thinking he’s a musical genius or anything, but it is wonderful to see him “get” something.
Today, he mentioned (out of the blue) that “it’s weird. When I think, sometimes I see pictures and sometimes I hear words.” It’s interesting that my question of a few days ago made an impact, in that he continued thinking about it. I suppose this would make him a hybrid thinker of sorts.
Not necessarily – I think most visual thinkers also think in words. Which makes sense to me, since many concepts don’t really lend themselves to pictures. But I think it’s a continuum, not an either-or.
Interesting. I can’t wait for the book to arrive. This should be interesting reading.
#soblessed and humblebrag
Let’s hear it!
Throwing them out as part of the lexicon.
Losing your shpadoinkle (thanks to Snarky)!
Yeah, that took me a minute to sink in.
I don’t know that stabby is mine, although I’ve used it. I’ll take on Sack O’Doorknobs, which is a Simpsons reference (the one where Homer forms the vigilante group). I just like the image of pissed-off moms swinging a heavy sack of doorknobs for justice.
Takin’ the girls out for pancakes = mammogram
IRL, I use shpadoinkle, luuuuurve it, and stabby a bunch.
Ah yes, pancakes