Kids Say the Darndest Things

Years ago, when my now 17 year old was less than 3, she was pretty much a little angel.  Susie didn’t go through the dreaded terrible twos, not at two, not ever.  She was usually pretty good but once in a while she would do something that wasn’t so good.  Sometimes she do something like take her brother or sister’s things and hide them then watch us look for them and say nothing.  Sometimes she’d help us find them.

Sometimes I would walk into the room and ask her if she had spilled the juice in her cup and she’d look at me with big innocent eyes and shake her head.  I would conclude that the cat had knocked it down or something.  She’d say nothing.

One day Susie came and said, “Mommy, I try to be good all the time.  I try not to do anything wrong but sometimes there’s someone inside of me and that someone tells me to do bad things.  I tell her to go away but she won’t go away until I do the bad things she wants me to.”  And yes, my less than three year old spoke like this.  She has always been a little genius.

I asked her, “Who is this person inside of you?  Is it a girl or a boy?”  Susie looked at me and said it was a little girl. “What’s the little girl’s name?  What does she look like?” I asked her.

“It’s a little girl.  I don’t know what she looks like because I never see her.  I just hear her.  Her name is Susu.”

I tried real hard to keep from laughing.  After that day, I would ask her when something “bad” had happened, if it had been Susie or Susu.  She’s look down and say “Susu.”  The rest of us had a great laugh over it but we all went along.  When necessary, we’d ask her if it was Susie or Susu.  She was good.  Sometimes, when it was something not so innocent, she’d own up to it and say it wasn’t Susu.  It was Susie that did it.

Susie had visits from Susu for several years and she slowly outgrew it.  One day, when she was about fifteen, she spilled something in her room.  I think it was black paint on the beige carpet in the house we were renting.  She came and told me that Susu had made a mess in her room.  I couldn’t help laughing.  We took care of the mess and she didn’t even get into trouble.