Rumors in the Air

We seem to be the go-to house for a few of the kids in our neighborhood. I don't mind so much (most days). Our kids have friends to play with and I know that they are safe in my yard (until they start jumping from the tree house and flipping each other over on the hammock). This also allows me sometimes to be privy to insider information that, as they grow older, will be protected deep in their brains and only shared with 1700 of their closest friends.

The other night, a couple of the kids were over and I was swinging them on the hammock and they were talking about one of the other friends who hadn't shown up yet. Jack said that he heard that the friend who hadn't shown up yet had gotten "anxious one day on the playground waiting to use the monkey bars so shoved the kid in front of her and she fell off and broke her arm." Jack, Luke, and another friend that was over agreed that they did not believe this to be true, because the girl in question was way too nice to do something like this. I also could have pointed out that she was the size of a toothpick and unlikely able to shove anyone with enough force to break someone's arm. Instead, I asked them this: "Does anyone know what a rumor is?"

Luke, who is four and quick to remind you that he is almost five, said, "Yeah. It's when one person says something about someone that may not be true but then other people spread it around anyway." Here is the definition of rumor from Webster: A story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts. Luke will be accepting diplomas on Saturday.


I told him that he was exactly correct, and he told me, very proudly, "I learned that from Veggie Tales." So that got me thinking - which one of those mean little veggies was spreading rumors?