Among several egregious behaviors that A. exhibited in front of his French grandparents last week was the sticking out of his tongue. “No,” his grandmother said, speaking slowly as years of weekly English-language lessons coalesced in her head. “Et… es… impolite.”
A. didn’t understand what was wrong, and I immediately felt guilty and indecorous, for he’s stuck out his tongue dozens of times in front of me without reprimand. In fact, I even stick my tongue right back at him.
Until my mother-in-law pointed it out, I essentially forgot that sticking out your tongue is pretty much the kid-equivalent of flipping the middle finger. The first time A. brandished his tongue to me several months ago, I returned the sentiment, which greatly amused A. and created a bonding moment when we didn’t have a lot of words between us. Usually, he’d do it sitting on the toilet while I kept him company, and our exchange of stuck tongues was always playful, fun, and filled with smiles and laughing.
But, as I said, I forgot that society frowns upon tongue-sticking, and my hasty crackdown on this behavior will surely confuse poor A., as just last week Mommy was oohing over a cute photo (below) of an exposed tongue. Chalk it up to a life lesson: Just when you thought you knew the game, the rules will change.
