Need a smile?

Inland 360 production editor Dallas Marshall shared some cute kid-isms from her family a few weeks ago (like her son Leroy saying preppy-oni, instead of pepperoni, pizza) and invited our readers to submit theirs.

We hope you have as much fun as we did reading the responses, and we agree with reader Rebecca Hill, who thanked Marshall for the feature, saying, “I really like positive ideas like this for community articles! We need more of that in these times.”
Here are some of the amusing mispronunciations and innocently mistaken words you shared:

My little daughter told people her grandma was having “Cadillac” surgery (cataract surgery).

When my son was little, he got a bit confused when studying centimeters and millimeters in school. He talked about measuring in “silly meters.”


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Our daughter called a punch-type can opener a “punkler.” Even now we still say, “Where’s the punkler?”


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When my son was maybe 2½ years old, his mother asked him if he would like a “grilled cheese sandwich” for lunch. He turned from playing with his Duplo or Lego blocks and adamantly said, “No!” His mother asked, “Why not?” Once again, he adamantly said, “I don’t want a girl cheese sandwich! I want a boy cheese sandwich!”


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When my youngest daughter was about 4, she hurt herself and said, “Ow! My wrist-foot!”

It took us a minute to figure out that she meant her ankle. That’s what we all call it now.

That same daughter also told me once that she and Grandma went to Greenwalls. She was close: It was Walgreens.

Also, my nephew was little and got out of bed crying once saying he couldn’t sleep because he “has a scratchy toe.”

Turns out he had a hangnail.

Kids are funny before they get older and know everything!


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When our son Travis was 3 years old, he watched me grate cheese with a box grater. Puzzled, he asked: “Mom, why are you rubbing cheese on that thing?”


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I have two cute things my grandchildren have said.

The first one is when my granddaughter Lilly was little, and we were going through a book that had a skunk. She called it a stunk, which I thought was actually a more appropriate name.

My grandson, Liam, calls a sliver a slither. I totally get it!

These are now staples in our household.


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While my kiddos, Frank and Paul, are now pretty much adults, we had so many funny pronunciations of things. I will try and keep it short lol.

• Oatmeal was “eatmeal.”
  
  
• Movies were “newvies.”
  
  
• Popcorn was “copporn” (this one might get you into trouble).
  
  
• Frank legit thought “cupboard” was pronounced “covered” until he was probably 11. He was pretty devastated when he found out — and embarrassed no one corrected him.
  
  
• Paul had a made-up word (that we still to this day have no idea what it meant) called “boppity,” and he used it for everything.

Which reminds me of a hot sauce called Bonache that I found a few years ago with a similar story:

“ ‘Bonache’ (bone-atch) is a word our son made up when he was 3 to describe many, many things.
“We have no idea either. …
“Bonache Sauce LLC
Ballard, WA”

Obviously I had to purchase it!

My longest list of mispronounced words actually comes from my best friend, Shauna, which I like to call “Shaunaisms,”’ and it takes up pages in my notes app on my phone. She’s a full grown adult woman … .


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3-year-old loves “Biteyear” and “Wooey” from Disney’s “Toy Story.” (Buzz Lightyear and Woody, for those who need all the consonants.)

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My kid sister liked “Yucky Charms” for breakfast; my niece used to sing “Mary had a yitto yam”; and my daughter, who is today a linguistics professor, didn’t care if she couldn’t pronounce a word — she’d just make up her own word. A washcloth was a “cucko” and the marks a rubber band made on your arm were “racelets.”


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We raised five kids, all in their 40s and 50s now. We can carry on long conversations in their babytalk. Oldest son used to love watching cartoons on TV as a preschooler. Two of his favorite characters were Speedy Godzilla and The Transmanian Devil.

Oldest daughter thought a washcloth was a clothcloth. When she learned it was a washcloth, she called it a washclothcloth. Younger daughter after rubbing cheeks with Dad, told him he had “piners.” He asked, “Like a pinecone?” She replied “No, like a porcupine.”

Middle son was enthralled with his uncle who rode a momocackle.


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3-year-old admonishing uncle: “Why are you sleeping in Jiggies’ (the dog) bed?”
I told my granddaughter to go wake up her Uncle Connor. We are a dog family, and when she found him in the bed with Jiggies on the floor, she was incensed. I think we have an up and coming social activist.

My mom wished she had kept a diary of all the great things she’s heard over 35 years of teaching, with six kids of her own and many grandkids. They say the darndest things!