Hi, My Name is Alex

Alex’s pronounciation is generally quite good for a three year old, but one word he has trouble with is his own name. It comes out sounding like “Alice” most of the time. Tonight, I made the mistake of gently (I thought) telling him this. I started by practicing the X sound with him (can you say ks? ks, ks, ks) then explained that “your named is Al-eks, sweetie, with a ks, ks, ks sound. “Alice” is actually another name that some little girls have. He practiced it, he got it right, I praised him profusely.

But then I tucked him into bed. And five minutes later, he was up at the door, wailing. “Moooooommmmy! I can’t say Ax-lix. I keep trying, Ax-el-ix, Alice, Ax-el-ix, Ax-el-ix, Alice. How do you say my name?”

I told him how to pronounce it, congratulated him profusely when he got it right, and explained he had plenty of days to practice saying his name and right now he should go to sleep and let his brain get some rest.

When I left the room, I heard him chanting softly to himself “Alex, Alex, Alex.”

A bit of a lesson on how powerful a Mommy’s words can be. I feel awful. Hopefully he won’t be so scarred for life that he re-dubs himself some crazy rebellious name in a few years!