October 18, 2009 by blue milk
Scene: A bunch of four year olds were completing craft projects and the host was putting everybody’s names on the back of their projects for them to take home at the end of the party.
Host: How do you spell your daughter’s name? Is it E L L Y or E L L I E?
Father of daughter: …………………………. Um. Ah, I’m not sure… Ah…. My wife?….. Um.
Remembering how to spell your child’s name must be part of that ‘second shift’ that mothers do.
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*eyeroll*
*sigh*
Our daughter’s middle name is Cathren. My husband can never remember how to spell it. Mind you, our son’s name is spelt quite unusually and husband has no trouble remembering how to spell that, despite the fact he had no say in son’s name whatsoever (son is from a previous relationship). Go figure. It annoys the hell out of me. Cath-ren. It is exactly how it damn well sounds!
Oh my. My father in law finds my neice’s name tricky, but I think he got the hang of it before she turned four. My father always gets my birthday wrong, but that is because he (mis)remembers that it’s the same day of the (different) month as my mothers. It’s actually the same day of the month as his. He’s only ever a day late.
bri, one Katherine to another (Cathren), your daughter may as well get used to it. People will be spelling her name wrong (Kathryn, Catherine, Kathrin) for the rest of her life. Many of my aunties are incapable of spelling my name.
This probably sounds grumpy, but actually those different spellings should be pronounced slightly differently. An argument against fancy spellings.
I don’t envy teachers who have to remember all these imaginative variations, but maybe some instruction in english pronunciation would not be amiss.
perhaps – the the father might be dyslexic…
Yep, he could be illiterate also, but I tend to doubt it.
OMG – I am speechless. Seriously.
Unless he really is dyslexic? Maybe……
Yep, my SO does that. “My son’s… er… thirteen” “S.O. he is NOT! He’s TWELVE!” “er sorry.” “What grade is he in again?”
I vote dyslexic. Know too many people with dyslexia now to make assumptions about bad spelling.
I am stunned.
My mum’s hopeless at spelling and routinely mispells the same words in different and exciting ways. She manages to remember that I’m Kate and not Cate, though. Even dyslexic people usually remember how to spell names of those closest to them!