Your kids will do all sorts of ridiculous things. They will trip and fall, and yes, you will sometimes laugh. You will tease them about this and that. They’ll make hilarious mistakes. They’ll look back on their own childish ridiculousness with amusement. Your family will have all sorts of inside jokes.
This is fine. This is wonderful. It’s what binds people together—the ability to bust each other’s balls, to share memories and experiences.
One biographer of Harry Truman noted that the former president “mispronounced a reasonable number of words, which in the beginning puzzled me. Then I realized that while he had often read them, he had seldom, if ever, spoken them aloud, not even in many cases heard them spoken aloud.”
It’s essential that your house and your relationship be a safe place for the mispronunciation of words. Do not make them feel self-conscious about reading, about tackling topics outside their comfort zone. This is how they grow. Tease them and have fun about many things. But mispronouncing a word? Respect it. Encourage it . . . and if you want to fix the problem, start by expanding your own vocabulary!