Please Tell Me They Still Have Prince Albert In A Can

Is there anything more bittersweet for parents than laughing at an unintentionally hilarious conversation your kid is having with you even though your laughter is making your kid cry?

Boy, that sounds really cruel when it's typed out like that.

There is an excellent children's show on local public radio station WXPN schoolnights at 7pm called Kids' Corner. It's a great (Peabody Award winning) educational/musical/goofy show that never ever talks down its listeners. Our nine-year-old loves it, and loves calling in and getting on the air.

The last time he got on was about two months ago, for a segment called "Science Stump-O-Rama," where kids try to stump a guest scientist with a question that they (the kids) have researched. The nine-year-old was successful in stumping the scientist, mainly because his question was extremely obscure, something about what year some randomly-selected asteroid was discovered.

Okay, so, the other night, Stump-O-Rama is on again and the nine-year-old wants to call in again. So he gets out his Children's Atlas of The Universe and, at our suggestion, looks for a fact that the scientist might have at least a small chance of knowing.

I know that what follows is old, old, old, but it really did happen, and it was completely new to the nine-year-old:

Me: Why not ask something about Pluto, that's been in the news lately?

9yo: Nah, that's too easy. How about... Uranus?

Me: Uh...

9yo: How many rings are around Uranus?

Me and the Missus: [Tee Hee]

9yo: What? Or how about, What percentage of Uranus's gases are hydrogen?

Me and the Missus: [Ha Ha] Um, well... [Ha]

9yo: What?!? How much helium is in Uranus?

Me and the Missus: [falling over].

9yo: [Head about to explode] WHAT?!?!?

Are we mature or what?

[Even though he really shouldn't be privy to Uranus jokes until high school, we did explain to him just what was so funny. He completely got the joke (he really is advanced for his age), his head didn't explode, and he selected another planet to ask about. After all that, he ended up not getting on the air anyway.]

Comments

[Frank]

[In my best Beavis and Butthead voice] He said Uranus. Heh-heh. Uranus.

That is so dang funny when the kids don't know. Just for a sec. Although mine are 15 and 13 now, and they know more than I do. Now the laughing is reversed. Ah, but we still have Uranus (which, btw, was pronounced urine-iss at Immaculate Conception, where I learned the planets).

[Donna]

Megan was precisely the 9 y/o's age when she asked me about Uranus (the planet, not your...., uh, well you know what I mean.

She was doing a project about the planets and asked me why all the boys laugh when Mrs. Leary mentions Uranus. I told her (and unfortunately Allie) what the joke was. They got it also. Too well. For the rest of the semester, Allie would ask Megan if she did her science homework..."Did you look up Uranus??" lol, she didn't laugh that hard again till she realized the word 'ball' had multiple meaning.
Why did I think I'd escape the bathroom humor having all girls?

[ryan]

Awesome. Glad you don't have to totally grow up to have kids.