Pronoun Trouble, Again
I never knew how tricky pronouns were till I started teaching them to my son Drake, who is now three. At first, he had a lot of trouble with “you” and “me”. Recently, though, he demonstrated how far he’s come. He looked in the mirror while my husband and I held him and said, “Mom is looking at HERself, Dad is looking at HIMself, and I am looking at MYself.” His recent mastery, though, has been shaken by a book he got for his birthday, My First Truck Board Book.
I’ll say “Do you want me to read My First Truck Book?”
He’ll respond, “NO! I want to read MY First Truck Book, Mom!”
Me: “Yes, we’ll read your first truck book.”
Drake: “NO! MY First Truck Book, Mom!”
Me (realizing we’re in Who’s on First-ian territory and that it’s not worth trying to explain that the word “my” is part of the title, and not about actual possession): Sigh. “Ooo-kay.”
What’s funny is how the pronoun of the title is a stumbling block for him, but he’s memorized every single one of the gazillion trucks in the book, e.g., “No, Mom, that’s a track excavator, NOT a front loader!”
My personal favorite truck is the mass excavator, which looks like the Snort from Are You My Mother?.