“What are your favorite animals at the zoo?”
“I like elephants,” said my three-year old niece, “but I
don’t like monkeys...”
“Why not?”
“Because they’ll eat me!”
She then hugged herself and rocked back and forth.
Needless to say, I was confused.
I started noticing a pattern of the word “monkey” being used
in conversations around her. I overheard her grandmother say, “If you don’t
finish your food, the monkey will get you.”
I later realized that my sister and her husband had been
using a fictional maiming monkey as a parenting tool to keep their rambunctious
daughter in check.
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