'Just keep breathing mum': Parents share the wise and wonderful words their children say

Dave Saunders, founder of From Lads to Dads — a support network for dads and dads-to-be

“When my daughter Sophie was seven, we were walking down the road together, heading to the park, and she turned and looked at me and said: ‘Dad, when I grow up, I want to be just like — I was all excited, thinking she’d say me — a unicorn’.”

Tracey Flynn, primary schoolteacher and co-author of The A-Z of Minding Me:

“When Callie was five and cut her knee, she looked curiously at the blood trickling down her little leg and said: ‘My hurt is the colour of love ... love hurts’.

“On a beautiful summer’s day, Callie and I got on a Ferris wheel. I’d forgotten how terribly scared I am of heights. I froze, closed my eyes, and held her hand tightly. She repeated over and over: ‘Just keep breathing mum, that’s all you have to do’. I still hear her words whenever I feel afraid or stuck.”

Aileen Hickie, CEO of Parentline

“I’d bought a nutribullet for my husband’s birthday, on behalf of the five kids. He was eulogising about it, saying how life-changing it’d be. And Millie, who was about eight then, said: ‘Dad, it’s a Nutribullet — it’s not bone marrow’.

“Ever since we often use this sharp, cutting line when someone’s going on a bit too much about something — we say: ‘It’s not bone marrow’.”

Jillian Doyle, senior clinical psychologist and member of Psychological Society of Ireland

“Something my two children, Bella, five, and Albie, two-and-a-half, say a lot is: ‘Stop and look’.

“We were out for a walk one evening and Albie lay down on his belly. He made me lie down too and he showed me a beetle.

“Or Bella might say ‘look, look, I want to show you something’, and it might be a cobweb, something really small that I wouldn’t see because I’d be hurrying. And it’s just that window of ‘pause and look’.”

Eileen Haly, parent coach, author of The Parent, and child confidence mentor

“My daughter Shannon, at 11, said: ‘When I fall in love it’ll be because I love the person — whether that person’s male or female I don’t know yet’.

“She’s gay — she came out at 21. I use this line so often with teens I work with who are struggling with their sexuality.”

Clare McCarthy, founder of sleep and child behaviour consultancy The Positive Practical Parent

“My four-year-old, Sebastian, said to his grandmother going downstairs one morning: ‘Take your time gran, you’re old and will be dead soon’.

Dr Niall Muldoon, Ombudsman for Children

“Our three-year-old was at the doctor’s just before Christmas and agreed with the GP’s suggestion to [say goodbye to] her dummies and give them to Rudolph’s babies. When we went to collect her medicine at the chemist she landed back to me with a handful of dummies and said: ‘Give those to Rudolph’s babies, I’m keeping mine’!”

Michelle Davitt, co-founder of MyKidsTime

“We’d gone for a Sunday drive and our youngest, five-month-old Ciara, needed feeding. We pulled over at a little pier, just under Croagh Patrick.

“It was a windy day, starting to rain, but my husband wanted to bring three-year-old Aoife for a walk while I fed Ciara.

“Aoife was all dressed in her rain gear and as they walked towards the pier, my husband said: ‘So Aoife, this is what we call the great outdoors’.

“Without missing a beat she looked up at him: ‘Daddy, I don’t see what’s so great about it, can we just go back to mum and Ciara’?”

AnnMarie Gaynor, founder of Irish Budgeting Mammy

“Jacque, aged three, saw a rough collie, like our old dog who’d died nine months earlier. He shouted: ‘Mammy, look it’s Daisy! Daisy’s back! Get her mammy’.

I explained the dog wasn’t Daisy.

I said: ‘We’ve Coco now — she’s our new dog’.

“He looked at me, and he looked at Coco before looking back at the collie: ‘Mammy, do you want to get a new granny like Coco?’ My mother had passed away that January.

Katherine Griffin, cancer survivor and author of Hope to Cope

“The first time it rained after my dad died, Colin asked if there was ‘a roof or an umbrella over grandad’s grave?’

“Mia, when she was five, said: ‘You’re my favourite mam’. I said: ‘I’m your only mam’ — and she said: ‘Yeah, it’s great you’re my favourite’.”

Noelle Rock, chartered psychologist and author of A Robin’s Tale

“Senan, at seven, said: ‘Mammy, I wish I was a kite… I would be too high to hear any of the grown up rules’.”

Nicole Murphy, solo-mum-by-choice and creator of the Magneplan

“I was talking to my twins, Will and Maya, then aged just over two-and-a-half, about the animals at the Dead Zoo. They were saying how all the baby animals were ‘sooo cute’, and that Will and Maya were babies so they were cute too. I said: ‘As I’m your mom, I must be cute too’. They both said an emphatic ‘No, you’re not cute – you’re big like an elephant or a giraffe’!

“As eight-year-olds, I asked: ‘When will you two be able to bath or shower yourselves?’ They replied: ‘When you’re dead!’ Well, I did ask.”