Baby Cousin 1.0 and Baby Cousin 3.0 are brothers, just a year and a half apart in age. I've noticed that sometimes when I mention one or the other of them in conversation, I use the wrong name - I call Baby Cousin 1.0 by Baby Cousin 3.0's name or vice versa.
In the past year, I've noticed this happening quite a few times. I'll be talking about one person, and refer to them by the name of another person with similar characteristics. For example, I found a picture of Fairy Goddaughter when she was 9 months old and said aloud to myself "Aww, look at [Baby Cousin 2.0]", (Baby Cousin 2.0 being a 9-month-old girl). Or when mentioning an uncle, I'll use the name of another uncle (who is the first uncle's brother).
When I was a kid, older adults (especially my grandparents' age) would mix up names like this from time to time. I thought they were actually getting the people mixed up or forgetting the people's names, and their response when their errors came to light didn't disabuse me of this notion.
However, when I do this myself, I'm not forgetting names or mixing people up. I know with absolute certainty which baby cousin was born first and which was born second, and I can even tell you their dates of birth and distinguishing characteristics and recent accomplishments. This isn't like when I first started my job and got the names of the two petite francophone ladies of a certain age confused and didn't realize I had the names wrong until one lady retired. There's no confusion or uncertainty whatever in this case. It's just that sometimes the wrong word comes out of my mouth.
1 comment:
That's a big one. :)
I always heard my parents and grandparents do this... and of course now I've been doing it for a while.
I would offer one edit: you are continuing to live. Getting older. You're nowhere near old yet.
But yeah.
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