Take That!

Hey you! Yes, you out there, Reader. You know, Reader Sally!

Okay, okay, don't shoot me! I take it back.

What the hell am I talking about? I just gave you the biggest insult ever! Apparently, in Doodles's world, "Sally" is about the worst thing you could call anyone. He and his friends have gotten in the habit of insulting each other by adding Sally to their names. When his friend J. really wants to rile him, she'll call out, "Hey, Doodles Sally!" To respond, he'll call back, "Hey, J. Sally," and since J. isn't quite as thick-skinned, it generally reduces her to tears. This Sally stuff is running rampant at the day care and we've now forbidden use of the word "Sally." (I'm not as crazy about that as I think you need to let kids work things out, but it was truly upsetting so many of the girls that I felt I had to support the other mothers on this one. I mean, that is another lesson, getting along within a community, so okay, "Sally" is banned.) We've told everyone that they could call each other by their middle names, so if J. wants to say something to Doodles, she can call out, "Hey Doodles Bug!" The other night Doodles called me "Mommy Sally" and as silly as I felt, I had to tell him he could call me "Mommy Jenny" or "Jenny Sue" but he couldn't call me "Mommy Sally."

Where does this stuff come from? Huh? Yeah, I'm talking to you, Reader Sally! What are you going to do about it?