Pompous word

Tonight, I read to the kids: a book about machines for my son and a book of rhymes for my daughter. Both kids listened to both selections. We were in my daughter's bed while I read and cuddled with the kids. Variously, I would say a certain word that both makes my kids cringe and laugh depending if they are or are not the one to whom the word is applied. It's always funny if it's the other kid but horrifyingly appalling if it is you.

The appellation: pompadour.

A few months ago, as I was combing my daughter's hair after the bath, I combed it back and up into that famous style named after a French courtesan made popular by certain men in the 1950s. I started laughing because my daughter looked silly. She wanted to know why I was laughing and I told her because her hair was in a pompadour. She frowned and was near tears. I felt really bad but could not stop guffawing. The word is just so funny. And her hair looked ridiculous. I did apologize. Over and over.

After that night, all I had to do was mention the dreaded word and my daughter would scream, as only she can, "NO! STOP IT! NO POMPADOURS!" To top it off, I would sing "Who Put the Pomp in the Pompadour" to the tune of "Who Put the Bop in the Bop-She-Bop-Bop-Bop" which would elicit more wails of protest.

The mere mouthing of the dreaded word or humming of the detested tune set off howls. Lest I seem smugly sadistic, let me interject that I used this as part of my parental arsenal to overcome whines, nags and vehement statements like "I hate you" and "You're the meanest mama ever"usually uttered in response to pleas to clean up toys or denials of more video watching.

Because this ploy was so effective at defusing or infusing situations with one child, I began to apply it to the other child. At first, he was amused. He actually asked me to put his hair into a pompadour which I promptly did; albeit with hair goop because his hair was dry. He laughed initially. Of course, I laughed as well. His mood suddenly shifted and he declared pompadours were bad as he toweled the goop out of his hair. After this incident, he accused me of child abuse via pompadour.

When reading stories at night, sometimes I add this word to the story at the instigation of either kid and sometimes on my own. But the non-instigating kid is always offended and the instigating kid is always delighted.

It is such a stupid word and is a really, really stupid hairdo. I am very amused by the power this stupid word has in our house. I suppose I should be appalled at its use as a tool of any kind) but it's just so silly. A stupid, silly word. I'm not sure that's not a politically correct thing to admit but there it is. Who put the pomp in the pompadour? Who is that man? I'd like to shake his hand. The hairdo is a stupid hair-r-do. A stupid word, oh. Man oh man!