Teach your children well...but not too well!

Okay, I admit it. There's one grammar error I make all the time when I'm talking...so in the spirit of full disclosure, here you have it. When my not-yet-three-and-a-half-year-old corrected me recently, though, I decided never to make this mistake (or any other, for that matter; how can I win "Mother of the Year" if I keep making mistakes?) again. I swear I am not making this up.

Here's how the conversation went:

I said something to my son about his mattress...

3-year-old: What's a mattress?
Me: That's the thing on top of your bed, you know, the part you lay on.
3-year-old: You mean the part I lie on?
What I wanted to say: You little...how dare you correct your mother?...don't you know I'm never wrong?

But alas and alack, I was wrong. So here it is, straight from the legendary Strunk and White (if you don't know who they are, see "Recommended Reading" to the right; you need to know these guys!):

Lay: A transitive verb [...] do not misuse it for
the intransitive lie. The hen, or the play, lays an egg;
the llama lies down. The playwright went home and lay
down.

lie; lay; lain; lying
lay; laid; laid; laying. (51)

Got it? I didn't think so. So here it is in lay terms (no pun intended...okay, maybe I did intend it) from another great resource, Woe Is I, by Patricia T. O'Connor (complete citation in sidebar):

lay/lie. To lay is to place something; there's always a "something" that's being placed. To lie is to recline. If you're not feeling well, lay your tools aside and lie down. (102)

Lie (to recline): She lies quietly. Last night, she lay quietly. For years, she has lain quietly.
Lay (to place): She lays it there. Yesterday she laid it there. Many times she has laid it there. (When lay means "to place," it's always followed by an object, the
thing being placed.). (64)

The things we can learn from our children...little know-it-alls.