Moms are NEVER wrong...much!

A bit of trivial parenting advice, unsolicited though it may be:
KNOW YOUR MOVIE CHARACTERS!

The kids and I were talking about the hit Disney movie CARS yesterday. Now sure, I thought it was a pretty cute flick (though it couldn't light a candle to Strongest Man in the World or Mary Poppins). So, the only character that stuck in my mind was Tow-mater ('cause he was sportin' some choppers that cracked me up).


So we're chatting about the main character and pointing out others on a Disney writing board. My 9yo dd excitedly said, "There's Lightning McQueen," as she ran her finger over the main character's image.

"No, that's not Lightning McQueen, honey. Lightning McQueen was the older, wiser car who had been around the track a few times." No pun intended.

"Uh uh, Mom. That's Lightning McQueen."
"No, sweetie. It's not." I was fully confident, because, as we all know, Lightning McQueen was played by Steve McQueen, famous veteran actor.

At this point, my dd was completely frustrated with me. "Mom! That is TOO Lightning McQueen. Uh huh, is too. Yes, it IS! Uh huuuuuuuuuh!"

"Nope, not him."

A distraction came up that abruptly ended our conversation, but she later reiterated that I was wrong and she was right. I let it go, "knowing" she was just being hard headed.
End of story.

Until this morning.

7 year old ds, who took no part in the debate yesterday (other than to bob his head back and forth between dd and I like a spectator at a tennis match) chimed in. As I neared the top of our steps, he literally sprang from his bedroom door just left of the the upstairs landing, posed like Tom Cruise in Risky Business. He quickly pointed to the CARS image on the back of his underwear and said, "Read that! What does it say?" Before I could strain my eyes to read the small print, he continued. "It says (pause for added drama from him)
LIGHTNING!
MCQUEEN!"

And with that, he began a very lighthearted giggle, stating, "Hahahaha! You said it wasn't Lightning McQueen, Mommy. But it was. Sissy was right and you were wrong. Hahahaha!"

As of this writing, I'm contemplating grabbing a permanent marker and "altering" the back end of that underwear to read something else.

Mr. Smarty Pants!

Grrrr! And I didn't even try to cash in the "Mother is always right" card. And okay, so Steve McQueen died in 1980 and it was actually Paul Newman who played in CARS (well, at least I think it was Paul Newman, what with my confidence shaken by a 7 yo in his Disney underwear and all). And anyway, what do you expect from a gal who once worked in a record store and asked her co-worker where to file the "Bob DIE-lan" albums.

Toni