There is a big fuss in Portland over what might happen to the Made in Oregon sign in Old Town. That is interesting, but not too much to our family. Around here, we have other branding issues— mainly, do we correct the kids on their totally awesome and sweet mispronunciation, or do we continue to live the lie?
You see, each year around this time, the sign owners put a red nose on the deer. The first year we lived in Portland, Francis was two and 1/2 and very precocious. She had seen enough of a very famous Christmas animated movie to confidently call out from her car seat, “Look! I see Rhubarb, the red nose reindeer!”
Now that is cute right? Cute enough that any parent would continue to try to use that wording. Maybe even cute enough to change all mentions of some Rudolph guy in the song year after year after year. But how long can this go on? Francis is now 6 and still calls him Rhubarb. Zephyr is three and is fully indoctrinated. And you know how lies suddenly become truths with enough re-tellings? Tonight, Brad tripped over his tongue when just leaning over to excitedly whisper to me from the train, “From here I can see Rhubarb!”.
11 Comments, Comment or Ping
Ah, that’s tough! But maybe you can just let her know that it’s a family joke. So you can refer to him as Rhubarb when you are with family, but other people call him Rudolph. I just don’t want her getting teased when it comes up in first grade.
November 22nd, 2009
You might want to correct that now, before someone teaches her the “Rudolph the red-nose raindeer” song. It might be embarassing for her. I can just see it now:” No!! , it’s Rhubarb the red-nose reindeer!! My Mommy and Daddy said so.”
November 22nd, 2009
I agree with Anne. I think it can still stay Rhubarb in the family, and should! That is awesome. But I also think that she can understand that everyone else knows him as Rudolph. This is a great story, and I hope that the sign sticks around… I love seeing “Rhubarb” when I come home!!
November 23rd, 2009
She probably already knows it’s really Rudolph, but I agree, just let her know, and continue the family thing. I went to a workshop where this sort of thing was talked about. What was said in the workshop was that it is important to have some family thing like that.
It’s funny how everyone starts saying it. For some reason we have started calling our kids, “kiddo”. Roger and I have had called each other kiddo by mistake too. It bugs Roger to no end! I knew a father who had two little girls. The whole family would call each girl sis, or sister, anyway, an endearment. The father was out in a very public place with his whole family and accidentally called his wife sis. He was quite embarassed.
November 23rd, 2009
I think you should tell them the truth about Rhubarb, too. It might be embarrassing for them to find out at school that their parents had by lying to them all this time. (That’s how I found out you don’t get pregnant by French kissing, which my mom let me believe! She didn’t give me the concept, but she didn’t correct it when she could have. Boy, was I mad when I found out the truth!)
November 23rd, 2009
There are so many, many things that kids tease each other about, that I sincerely doubt that Rhubarb the Red-Nosed Reindeer will pierce the top ten. What I’d like to correct is that I didn’t “whisper” about Rhubarb to Ingrid on the train, I was actually so shocked to see it that I just blurted “Rhubarb! Rhubarb! I see Rhubarb!”. Thankfully, train not full, but it’s not like I would have looked any more sane if I had been saying Rudolph instead.
November 24th, 2009
I have to agree with Brad. In the whole scheme of things Rhubarb is pretty minor, We used to use one of Kirstin’s made up words…. expensible. A combination of expensive and not sensible.
November 24th, 2009
From now on, I’m singing Rhubarb the red-nosed reindeer. I like that much better than Rudolph. When my brother was little, he said “asspopper” for “grasshopper”. My mom and aunt thought that was a riot and encouraged him to say it. I suppose he figured out the correct pronunciation eventually. …At least, I’ve not heard him say asspopper for the last sixty plus years.
November 24th, 2009
All you truth-tellers would be so proud of me when Francis asked, “Why is holding up the middle finger like a bad word?”. She went on to say, “Someone said it stood for the F word, but I couldn’t think of any bad words with an “F” in them…. there’s “stupid”, there’s “dumb”— those don’t start with “F”. What is it, mom?”
November 24th, 2009
I think the “truth tellers” vs “no big deals” may come down to personality types. If that’s correct, half of us should be right.
Oh, and, being a truth-teller, that was me posting before, not Gavin.
November 25th, 2009
Oh, the F word. That’s “Fie”, like “Fie on goodness, Fie!” which would lead you right into the song from Camelot…
(Hey, I’m a humor writer. Truth is our enemy.)
November 26th, 2009
Reply to “Rhubarb in Oregon”