“See? It’s a piece of cake!” I said to my 7-year-old son as he finished up his multiplication homework.
“What cake?” he asked.
“What?”
“You said there was cake.”
“No, I said it was piece of cake. As in, it’s easy.”
“A piece of cake is easy? I don’t get it,” he said.
Why would he get it? Cake doesn’t have anything to do with something being easy, yet we’ve come to accept and integrate these random idioms into our lexicon, often to the confusion of our kids.
To see just how many popular clichés our kids were familiar with, I gathered a sampling of children ages 3-12 to find out.
Let’s see how they did!
1. All’s fair in love and ________
tears. — Fern, age 3
weddings. — C., age 4
kissing. — Katie, age 5
I don’t get it. — Avery, age 5
sorrow. — Hayley, age 7
care. — BooBoo, age 7
beauty. — Cole, age 7
not love. — Nolie, age 8
money. — E., age 10
war. —Boy Wonder, age 12
MOMMYFRIEND 
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