Insider jokes

When we are together as a family and somebody has a different opinion than the others, you might happen to hear the following phrase: “You are little, and you copy everything I do!”

This phrase, which might appear incoherent and confusing to others, will make all of us smile:

Because it is an insider joke – a phrase or a word, whose background is only known by the persons involved, which also means that only they can understand the punch line.

In this specific case, we use the phrase whenever there is a disagreement – in our house, if one side runs out of arguments, but still wants to be in the right and have the final say, then at our house you say:

“You are LITTLE. And you copy everything I do.”

When Noelle was a toddler, she downright idolized her bigger sister. When Jil didn’t like to eat something, Noelle as well couldn’t stand it anymore.

When Jil was fed up with sitting on the swing, also Noelle would leave the playground right away.

Whatever Jil did, Noelle would do the same – you know what I’m talking about, right?

And, most important: whatever Jil was allowed to do (for example stay up late), Noelle wanted to get the same allowance.

Well, Jil was the most patient and loving big sister in the world – but if it was too much for her, she got irritated and complained to me:

“Oh, Mama! She is small! And she copies everything from me!”

For Noelle, those two sentences were the Mount Everest of swearwords – she couldn’t think of a bigger dispraise.

Thus should someone bother Noelle, this three-year-old girl would stand tall, fold her little arms, give him the evil look and say with the greatest possible disdain and anger:

“You...you...you are SMALL! AND YOU COPY EVERYTHING FROM ME!!!!”

(I was insulted as “small” on a regular basis, because I gave her the wrong clothes to wear, the wrong food to eat, brought her to the wrong kindergarten, and just generally and fundamentally failed as a mother in her eyes. And additionally, I copied everything from her.)

The phrase:

“You are small, and you copy everything from me!” was being yelled by Noelle so many times over the years (preferably, while she was rolling on the floor. Yes, also in the supermarket.), that it was soon established as an insider joke within our family.

If you find something stupid about someone else, but you don’t really know what to say, then the other person will get to hear that he/she is small and copies everything from you.


Seriously:
what could be worse than THAT?!

Some other insider jokes:

- “Tschigelung” (“Entschuldigung” is the German word for “sorry”. During his second year of life, Ben pronounced this word wrongly as “Tschigelung”, which is why we like to use it as a replacement for saying sorry.)

- “You have to get a second job!”

(A standard phrase, when my husband thinks that something is too expensive. It originates from an American bridal-fashion reality show, in which a bride-to-be is having a buying spree, wanting to buy dresses for half a million dollar, and her future husband is carefully trying to stop her.

The groom: “But I also want to EAT something...”

The bride, filled with indignation: "You have to get a second job!")

We have many insider jokes in our family, and if we are together, having a lively and animated conversation, it can be hard for outside observers to follow what we say, because sometimes it is like a rhetorical exchange of blows.

I do like insider jokes a lot, as they help to relax every situation and everyone just has to smile!

Do you have insider jokes in your family?

Tell me about it in the comments!

Love,

Joanna