Admitting you're wrong

There are sometimes in life where you just have to realize that you weren't meant to do something. In order to grow you have to know your strengths as well as your weaknesses. Yesterday, I came to a sad conclusion....I've should never be an ulpan teacher.

SL comes home earlier than his younger two brother (read previous post to find out why). So during this time we get to have MU time (Me & you = MU). So yesterday I asked him the usual questions: "How was school?", "What did you do today?", etc. So, he decided to tell me what he does during the day. As he's reviewing, davening, learning, hafsaka, etc., he mentions that during lunch rebbe sometime has a lotto. OK I think that's nice. Then SL complains "Why does rebbe always say pa'amayim by my name?" I think OK pa'am means time (as in one time). So pa'amayim means twice. But, just to make sure I take out my handy Hebrew/English dictionary. I'm scanning and I see what I think is what I'm looking for but, it says that it means "sometimes".

So this is when it goes downhill fast. I'm in loving, patient mother mood (read: I took a nap). So I say OK SL let's use it in a sentence to understand it better:

"Shimon Leib dachuf ach shelo....pa'amayim!"
"Shimon Leib daber chutzpa...pa'amayim!"
"Shimon Leib yeled tov...pa'amayim!"

Now he's rolling with laughter. Later AY comes comes home. We do the same thing with him. We're all in a joyful mood. Everyone is happy they learned a new word. I feel like a good mother, etc.

Then Eric gets home. We talk about they day and I proudly tell him what happened today and how I taught the children a new word. His face was first a smirk, then a giggle, then a full fledged roaring laughter. (For any of you who've seen Eric really laugh you know what I mean). He said Sarah, pa'amayim means twice, l'famim means sometimes."

Oh well, I guess I could always stretch out my maternity leave a little longer until I know the language better.