Driving a manual-transmission truck with my five-year-old grandson Alex as my passenger, I was having trouble finding the correct gear. Several times, I gently let out the clutch after shifting into what I thought was first, and each time it jerked forward. Alex glanced at me and said helpfully, “I think you have it in jumping gear, Grandma.” 

Arlene Pottinger

A child at my four-year-old’s preschool told her classmates one day that she needed a “damp towel.” Some of the kids thought she had said a naughty word, and the teacher then had to explain. “If your mummy asks you to bring her a damp towel, what does she mean?” A little girl blurted out, “She means that she wants that towel right now!”

Martha Baucom

Vinegar gets a lot of use in our home. I use it for laundry, for cleaning, and we normally eat salad dressed with oil and vinegar. One day I arrived home to and my eight-year-old son, Jason, scrubbing a very slippery floor. “Did you put vinegar in the water?” I asked him. “Yes,” he said, “and I threw in some oil, too.”     

Pam Lombardi

While I was out shopping with my four-year-old son, Luke, he asked, “Mummy, can we get some fish? Not the kind that swims in the water – the kind that comes with chips.”

Linda Henderson