petite anglaise

Tadpole talk

16.01.2007 5:44 pmTadpole says

Tadpole and I sit on her bed, side by side. I bend forwards to unbuckle her shoes (Clarks, navy blue and purple with sequins. Sensible shoes fit for a princess.)

“Mummy, I can see a bottom peeping there,” shrieks Tadpole. An icy hand reaches for the space between my jumper and my low waist jeans and I flinch in anticipation of her touch.

“Why do they fall off, your trousers?” she continues, puzzled now. “Look mummy!” She turns to show me her own rear. “We can’t see my bottom, can we? My trousers don’t do that…”

“And a good thing too!” I say, hastily pulling my jumper down.

There are some scenes that need to take place behind closed doors, and that was definitely one of them.

55 comments

  1. But I’m sure it’s a beautiful sight!!!

    JNH | 6:12 pm

  2. Fashion makes so little sense when seen through the eyes of a three-year-old.

    Watch out - I can definitely see her repeating that in a crowd. Maybe even to a stranger…

    BlondebutBright | 6:44 pm

  3. Of course, I’m sure Tadpole won’t remember this episode when she reaches her teens and starts doing the low waist jeans thing herself!

    Greenmantle | 6:50 pm

  4. Well seeing as some shops sell thongs for nine year old children, some people probably wouldn’t be that shocked….

    stressqueen | 6:59 pm

  5. Out of the mouths of babes…….

    Sally

    Sally Lomax | 7:20 pm

  6. Is that it!

    Sue | 7:56 pm

  7. Irony duly appreciated.

    Tom | 8:11 pm

  8. Sue, if you are referring to the brevity of this post, I decided that the “Tadpole talks” category will be a place for short snippets of conversation that I want to record for posterity. Sometimes they won’t slot easily into a longer post, but it would be a shame to discard them…

    petite | 8:13 pm

  9. Adorable. ;)

    And what a cool idea to have a record of conversations like that, for -both- of you as she grows up!

    jen | 8:30 pm

  10. Personally, I think snippets of conversation often make lovely posts and this is a prime example of that.

    I am a fan of low waisted jeans but also possess a very hollow back (a family trait) which means at the best of times my trousers sometimes have a little gap at the small of my back. However, when I am wearing low waisted jeans I am completely and utterly terrified that I am revealing A LOT more than I mean to….!

    On the plus side that family trait means that women in my family have been sporting JLo type bottoms since before the lady in question was born :-)

    Elisabeth | 8:55 pm

  11. Agree, they say the funniest things..

    Your “customers” drive a hard bargain don’t they?

    heather | 9:09 pm

  12. bless her, its good to keep a record of these things!

    gerbil | 10:47 pm

  13. Well, you must be in with the times, ‘though if you were a teen-ager you would be showing undergarments and not skin.

    Lost in France | 11:42 pm

  14. she is so very french!

    mad muthas | 12:17 am

  15. It’s funny to think that you’ll probably have the reverse conversation with her in 16 years.

    frog with a blog | 12:29 am

  16. Tadpole = Supercute

    Mlle Smith | 12:50 am

  17. ive just found your blog today. its very good with good writing - I’m sorry you were outed last year!

    cheers
    http://mammals.wordpress.com/

    zack | 3:31 am

  18. Cute!

    As for the length of the post: it’s quality, not quantity that counts.

    Sparkle | 9:20 am

  19. I wrote down things that my children said as they were growing up and it is such a pleasure to go back and read them and, usually, get a good laugh.

    Linda | 10:20 am

  20. Aaah quel petite bebe! Ils sont tres mignons non les petits enfants? I went to a friend’s house last sunday afternoon to play with his twins and this cute french boy imitated his papa like a pro! He growled like a little tiger!

    Pau-Lynn | 11:47 am

  21. Dear Petite,
    I’ve been reading your blog for some time. I’m from Bulgaria, from a beautiful town called Slivo pole.
    I just wanted to congratulate you for the great blog and up-to-date topics. Many of the people in Bulgaria have similar things to share.

    Megi | 12:12 pm

  22. You got off lightly Petite, my own 3 year old daughter told me I had a HUGE bottom the other day (and stressed the word huge with glee I thought).

    Not quite so shocking though as when I heard her singing a little song about mummy’s hairy minnie. Time to get the razor out me thinks!

    Great post and great blog, felt is was finally time to de-lurk!

    Jo | 12:40 pm

  23. You can be pretty sure that when Miss T reaches teenage they’ll find low waist jeans to be ridiculously passé and that fashion will then dictate the exposure of some other part of the female anatomy.

    Parkin Pig | 12:43 pm

  24. Sadly, 90% of the jeans sold in america for little children are also low waisted! Thankfully that is changing again as the higher waisted skinny jeans slowly creep in. ;) Not good for ME though because I’m incredibly ’short’ waisted and low-rise has been a godsend to me! In normal jeans my waistband sits just under my boobs! (I’ll secretly save all the low-rise even when they are out of style… and just wear my t-shirts long enough to cover.) *wink*

    Meritt | 1:54 pm

  25. Wow! She’s such an astute and! “proper” young lady :) Gotta love those things said at her age - priceless. (My son at that age used to say it wasn’t nice for mommies to wear shorts…) Wonderful, wonderful peek at Tadpole!

    Terry | 2:15 pm

  26. How funny that she bends down to see if her pants are doing the same thing!

    tongue in cheek | 2:21 pm

  27. Don’t they prefer to do that stuff in the road? :-)

    fjl | 2:23 pm

  28. Nothing like a effective words of a 3-year old to start the day. Thanks for this post Petite. Well done.

    Johnny | 2:48 pm

  29. thank you for being the first thing to make me snort into my coffee this morning.

    franko | 3:11 pm

  30. This one should be linked to the time in the plane… Kids are cruel! ;-)

    Marius | 3:29 pm

  31. A friend’s 5-year old son shouted ‘Mummy, you have a very big bottom’ in a crowded shop - his poor mother had to make a very quick exit. Tadpole sounds she would be a lot more discreet!

    Karen | 5:04 pm

  32. Take her advice - sounds as if she’s the sensible one in the family!

    SW France | 5:04 pm

  33. Next thing you know, Tadpole will be telling you “You are not going out dressed like THAT, are you?”

    It will then be time to be very, very afraid…..;-)

    Dave of the Lake | 7:38 pm

  34. This is my statement: we should never forget to learn from kids!

    Momo | 8:59 pm

  35. Leave it to children to speak the truth, as awkward as it might be. I’m reminded of a story a friend told me about the day her 4-year old daughter decided to tell the world the new word she’d apparently learned that day. While standing in line at McDonald’s she suddenly shrieked “Penis! Penis! Penis!” at the top of her voice.

    Her mother: red-faced and wishing the earth would open up and swallow her.

    The Bold Soul | 9:12 pm

  36. very cute little girl , and very cute dialogue
    and a good name , Tadpole

    sin31 | 7:46 am

  37. Obviously Princess Tadpole is a very discerning young woman. If 95% of the supposedly grown-up women who wear these low waisted jeans (worst of all with what, I think you call them,thongs)could see themselves from the rear, they would be absolutely, and hopefully, mortified. As a man I am totally entranced by the female form…in the majority of cases…but this revealing fashion, unless displayed by a nymph-like 16/18 year, does little to stimulate anything other than the feeling of there goes “mutton (normally blubbery to boot) dressed as lamb”.

    Terry Harris | 11:09 am

  38. Sweet! Almost as bad as my stepson-to-be, after his first visit to me aged three, getting in the car with his mother (my then boyfriend’s estranged wife) and announcing: “Helena’s got an all-in-one.” I’m sure she was thrilled….
    http://www.helenafrithpowell.com

    Helena Frith Powell | 11:21 am

  39. Don’t tell me Tadpole has noticed that mummy’s pants have loose elastics? he he.

    AussieGil | 11:41 am

  40. I feel I must point out that I don’t buy low waisted jeans out of choice, but it’s difficult to get anything else these days. Usually I wear a dress over the top, as I HATE visible bottom cleavage. Which is why she had never spotted such a thing before…

    petite | 11:43 am

  41. My 7rd old daughter thought that the biggest insult she could give me was to tell me that i had “no fashion sense”.

    Sara | 12:09 pm

  42. Men, watch out! We’re under the low waisted jeans threat too (1st time I can feel some chilly air down there…). Now I know how the women can feel when they didn’t get those out of choice. Be ready to hear some laughs in your back instead of appreciative comments (haven’t heard any of those yet) lol

    Froggywoogie | 2:54 pm

  43. Correction Petite. One doesn’t call it “visible bottom cleavage” in polite society.
    One calls it “the builder’s crack”!

    Carruthers | 3:37 pm

  44. Say no to crack.

    Adam | 4:16 pm

  45. Comment #37 reminds me of the Ogden Nash verse (which I have probably not got completely right since I’m doing it from memory):

    Sure deck your lower limbs in pants,
    Yours are the limbs, my sweeting.
    You look fine as you advance —
    Have you seen yourself retreating?

    Passante | 7:26 pm

  46. Oh, just adorable! My lil’ Kitten was behind me in the supermarket and pulled my pants away from my bottom and loudly pronounced “Mommy poopied?”

    Audrey | 9:33 pm

  47. I love that it’s a behind closed doors moment that you share with us!

    clarissa | 10:51 pm

  48. It’s wonderful that you will have these little moments to look back on. My mother used to tell a story about shopping with me for panties when I was about Tadpole’s age. I refused to have anything to do with usual (granny) panty that she wanted to buy for me and was insistent that I was old enough to wear the sportier briefs “like grandma wears”. After quite an argument I won out and we went home with the ones “like grandma wears”. They laughed for years over that…apparently I was a little fibber as well because my grandmother indeed wore the granny panty. :)

    California Reader | 2:02 am

  49. Hi Petite,
    I’ve been checking in to your blog regulary since about the time you were outed and I love it. I am from New Zealand, which is possibly about as far away from France as it is possible to be :) Am looking forward to your book - and then the sequel, perhaps when Tadpole is in her teens.

    Tania | 2:08 am

  50. On a more serious note…
    I hope you all are faring well during this extreme weather. I saw some of the (online) news clips from London and the French coast, WOW! Here it’s just “bleeping” cold! They say the estimated frost damage to the California citrus crop tallies more than one billion dollars. The gale force winds you are suffering look awful…I can’t wait for Spring! Brrrrrr

    California Reader | 2:25 am

  51. Well, it’s a bit gusty on the rue de Belleville, but I don’t think Paris has borne the brunt of it. And seeing as I hadn’t looked at a newspaper for a couple of days (I know, it’s bad), it was only when I spoke to my dad on the phone last night that I realised it was actually causing such big problems…

    petite | 10:42 am

  52. Last night, our six year old was wearing jeans, which, as they usually are, were just a bit too big for her. As they slid down below where they should decently be seen on a little girl, I thought of you and giggled to myself…..

    Sally Lomax | 11:14 am

  53. So would that be called ‘la fissure du bricoleur’, then? Perhaps not eh. :^)

    suziboo | 11:26 am

  54. “Out of the mouths of babes” as they say. I always think different generations can learn so much from each other. I have two young nephews who I love spending time with, I find they can be so insightful as they sometimes see things from such gloriously different angles.

    I’m reminded of a quote by May Regan….”No person is a genius when compared to a baby.”

    Sue | 11:49 am

  55. Excellent stuff :) A friend of ours little boy looked into his Mum’s armpit after she had not shaved it for a while, and said…

    “but the thing is Mummy, why do you have a beard under your arm?”

    He said this while she was paying for something in a shop…

    Jonathan | 2:20 pm

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