Words in the wrong context

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by BigV

I *know* what was meant, the clothes are meant to go in the chute. But I *choose* to "deliberately misinterpret* the child's action, drawing attention to it, and having them fix it. My hope is not to frustrate them for sport, but to get them to correct it themselves.

How do you deliberately misinterpret the clothes on the floor? What do you say? Me, I say, "Put your clothes in the dirty clothes basket," and if the habit persists it gets pointed out with stronger methods and consequences. (For the record, so does Mr. Clod, I don't know exactly what sort of methods you're talking about here.)

By "deliberately misinterpreting," I'm talking about, instead of saying, "You mean to use the word 'eagerly' there, because 'anxiously' means more like...", saying something like:

"Well, that's funny, I don't know why you would be afraid of summer vacation."
"...What?"
"You know, you said you were nervous about summer vacation."
"No I didn't." (or more usually, we repeat the dumbfounded "...what?" cycle a few more times first.)
"Yes, because you said you were anxious."
And by then they mutter, "Yeah, okay, whatever," and don't actually learn what the mistake was, or worse, defiantly persist in using the wrong word, because they're tired of the passive-aggressive game.