Kids’ logic

You can never underestimate the energy and intelligence of kids nowadays. My pamangkins (Filipino for nephews and nieces) are the hyper-active types, they go restless if they don’t do anything at home. And when they tell me some of their ideas and stories, I am just amazed at the lessons I learn from them.

They grew up in a multi-cultural environment, so they speak mostly in English with few Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and Cebuano words. Being with them, playing around with them, is definitely one of the things I enjoy when I’m in Thailand.

Logic No. 1

R-vin’s favorite word for something smart or cool? Professional. He tells me, “I’m a professional.” One time I was trying to fry in the stove, but the pan kept on sliding. He told me to transfer it in the other burner, which was smaller. It solved my problem. I was thankful to him. Then he told me, “See, I’m smart, yah?” And I just thought, “oh yeah you’re a professional, of course.” He used to ride with me at the back of my bicycle when I pick him up at school, and one time he told me to pass by a difficult narrow path, I was very hesitant but he was so makulit (persistent), so when we finally went through, he told me knowingly, “see, I told you, you can do it!”

Logic No. 2

Anzel is the imaginative one. She’s fond of story-telling and one time she told me a story about a little girl, I thought it was from a book, but I later learned she made it up herself. I was impressed. So the next story-telling time, we took turns making up tales of foxes, fairies, princesses, fishes and birds. She would always tell me, “your turn!” after she does her share of wit. She even made up some story while singing it in a tune she just did herself. When her little brother R-jed would follow what she does or what she likes, she would become impatient and tell him, “Why do you always copy me?”

Logic No. 3

R-jed at three talks a lot. I think it’s because he grew up with so many adults and kids around him. When my Mom reminded him, “R-jed, I’m the mother of your Mommy, so I’m your Mama.” He did not agree with this and replied, “I don’t want to be your mama!” We laughed at first and told him, “of course, you’re a boy, you can’t be a mama.” But he still kept repeating it, and we couldn’t understand how he arrived with this reasoning. We finally realized R-jed got it from the sentence “I don’t want to be your friend,” and used ‘mama’ instead of ‘friend’.

I have my own share of childhood logic which my Mom used to narrate to us. She told me that when I was small, during one of our evening trips, I was observing the moon shining in the dark sky. I innocently asked her in Hiligaynon, “anong ngalan sina nga bulan?” (What’s the name of that moon?)This got her confused, and asked me what I meant. I told her, “You know, like February or January?” In the local dialect, ‘bulan’ is the term for both ‘moon’ and ‘month’. She had to explain to me that both words are the same but have different meanings and I confused one with the other.

Oh well, kids’ logic. Cute.