Language Lessons

Dads can be helpful people. They know how to do things, important things. They know a little bit about helping kids too. Children rely on dads to help them with very important things. For instance, we were raising our English-speaking children in Germany, where German was more or less their primary, or first, language. We spoke English at home, as they would not be exposed to it at the Kindergarten or while playing with their German friends. 

One morning the opportunity to help my daughter with finer points of English grammar presented itself. 

“L’gus stop! I want be leave alone!” 

“Wait, Emony!” he begged, following her down the stairs. 

“No, I want be leave alone!” she cried. 

The patter from the Treppenhaus was louder. She made it to the Eingang and didn’t know where to turn. 

Lukas stopped behind her, well within her personal space. She was agitated. She was trapped. 

“Emony!” 

“I want be leave alone! Stop it, L’gus!” 

I turned and looked up from the table where I was working on a very important task. Dads always work on very important tasks that are, well, important. However, I wanted to help her out of her situation. Not her sense of being trapped by her six-year-old brother, who also had something important to do; he needed a playmate. No, what she needed was a language lesson. 

“I want be leave alone!” 

Her cheeks were blushed, dark pink. She was irritated by her brother’s unwanted attention. 

“Emily,” I said at last, looking up at my three-year-old, still in her cute H & M red plaid jammies. “We say, ‘I want to be left alone’. Not ‘I want be leave alone.’ Can you say that? ‘I want to be left alone.’” 

She looked at me. She was quiet. I was confident that this little bit of instruction in using the passive voice would be a welcome corrective. 

“Can you say that?” I asked again. 

She was quiet. She stared – glared, actually - straight at me. In a passionate tone, she said to me, “Leave me alone!” Then she walked away. 

Dads are not always very helpful. 

Lesson learned.



Note: Treppenhaus is the stairwell; Eingang is the foyer. Kindergarten is, well, you know.