What kids hear when you speak

As any parent will tell you, one of the most frustrating aspects of parenting is telling kids something over and over again.  When you feel like your voice and message is on replay all the time, it's aggravating to be ignored by your off-spring as if you had never spoken. Or be stared dumbly at, or better yet, the confused look, while you once again repeat whatever you had been stating. I've often wondered if my kids even hear me at all. I've sometimes mused that children must hear sounds at frequencies different from the adult voice. Like how dogs can hear the high pitched whistle but the human ear cannot. Well, a conversation with Devlin this morning confirmed that while kids do actually hear our voices, it's the message that gets scrambled.
We're always trying to emphasize the importance of eating balanced meals, exercising and being healthy. While we all love bacon, it's a weekend treat because of its high fat and sodium levels. When asked why we couldn't eat bacon everyday, Aisling was told because we'd all get fat if we ate bacon all the time. She remembered that, and while getting her haircut over the holidays, she told the hairdresser, "I love bacon, but we can't eat too much because we'd get fat. That's what happened to my dad. He ate too much bacon and got fat. But it's okay because he's going to exercise now."
As you can imagine, the entire hair salon exploded in laughter.
So, Daddy decided to explain that bacon wasn't the evil cuplrit.
He told the kids that it's important to exercise and eat well. He also explained that he didn't gain weight from eating bacon, but because he was so busy taking the kids to various activities, he found it hard to find time to exercise.
This morning, we had our weekend breakfast of pancakes and bacon. I asked Aisling how many pieces of bacon she'd had.
"None!" she stated.
"Why? It's your favorite!"
"I don't want to get fat!"
"You won't get fat from eating bacon. You won't get fat if you exercise! And stay healthy," I tried to explain.
Devlin decided to help. "Yeah, you get fat by having kids!"
"What?!" I asked outraged, and insulted at what he was suggesting. "You don't get fat from having kids. Do I look fat?"
"Well, Daddy said he got fat because you had four kids, and then he couldn't exercise because you made him change diapers and stuff."