Oops!

The saying “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” was not coined with kids in mind. Had that truism been penned (or crayoned, I guess) by a toddler or preschooler, it would have been more like, “Fool me once, that’s funny. Fool me twice, that’s hilarious.” I don’t know about all kids, but the ones I’ve met think that catching a grown-up not knowing something or making a mistake is high comedy. When Connor was at Chico State’s Children’s Center, saying goodbye was really hard for my little boy, so I would leave a few extra minutes every morning to help him make the transition with his favorite books. Since sometimes any mommy is better than no mommy, our daily routine started to get quite a following. And thus, my highly successful especially-for-preschoolers stand-up career was born. Each day I would let Connor choose a book and I would read it, incorrectly, to the clever, critical, and easily amused assembly. Every time I substituted the wrong word for one they knew, the whole crew would bellow, “No!” and giggle like fiends. I guess when you’re three years old, feeling like you’re in charge and know the answers is pretty rare and powerful stuff. In Richard Scarry’s Good Night, Little Bear, Father Bear is trying to put his little guy to bed, but can’t “find” him--sitting on Father Bear’s shoulders. Written in 1961, the characters are a bit retro (read: gender-biased), but the story is timeless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Scarry

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Night-Little-Bear-Golden/dp/0307986241