A hoop a loop

We had an incident at dinner tonight where Chance felt that his siblings were making fun of his pronunciation of a word.

We had just sat down for dinner, when Chance said he knew how to use the "hoop a loop". Since the kids had all been playing with it before coming to the table, we all knew what he was talking about. His siblings started to laugh thinking that Chance was being funny.

It soon became apparent though, that Chance was not amused, in fact he was holding back tears.

I explained to his siblings that Chance was not meaning to be funny, that he didn't realize that it was called a hula hoop; he had just heard it wrong.

Chance's siblings were rather mortified to realize that it had been a hearing mistake and seeing that Chance was crying.

They all started to apologize and to tell Chance that they thought he was trying to be funny.

Chance's dad took him over to a chair and talked to him for a minute. and then Chance came back to the table much more composed.

To be honest, Chance has had several late nights this week due to rodeos, a movie birthday party and just having a difficult time wondering why he should not be up when it was still light outside. So he was more tired than usual. And Chance's siblings do not usually mock Chance's speech so the fact that he thought they were making fun of his honest mistake hit him hard.

We have clarified though that it is called a hula hoop and we'll try to say the word several times this week so that it sticks in Chance's head.