Overhead at our dinner table
Claire sitting at the coffee table eating dinner while Dante lays under her feet in hopes of catching some crumbs, “Dante! Leave! You’re pissing me off!”
Mama and Dad’s eye brows raised toward one another.
Me, “um….” Thinking it’s my truck driver vernacular that got us to this point.
Mama, “Claire, you shouldn’t tell the dog that he’s pissing you off. Tell him he’s upsetting you. That’s an adult phrase.”
Claire’s reply. “But, Mama, what if he IS pissing me off?”

An East Coast family living deep in the Southwest.