Lost in Translation

Our family took an out of the way detour up to the outlets yesterday. Fernando and I decided to divide and conquer to hit more stores in less time. Our meeting place would be at the Children's Place clothing store. Fernando proved to be the better shopper of the two since he actually had items to show for the time spent in the stores. He kindly bought two little basketballs for Mia and Tiago. These would help solve the inevitable fight we have during family basketball times as to who gets the ball. Mind you we own two and there is always another one at the church, but why not all choose the same ball.

Mia and Tiago were each given the responsibility to carry their own basketball to the car. Mia seemed a little anxious about this. Finally she asked me, "Did Daddy buy this for me?" in which I responded "Yes, Daddy bought it for you". Strangely, she kept asking that question over and over again. Both of us persisted in the same exchange of the original conversation. Finally Mia yells "Did Daddy pay for the basketball or did he just take it from the store?" I hadn't realized that she didn't connect buy and bought as the same word just a different form of the word. The experience brought mixed emotions. First how frustrating, but funny miscommunication can be. Second, the proud feelings of a parent that she would be concerned about accepting a shoplifted item. And finally, the intrigue one has after realizing their child thought they might actually do something that wrong.