Don't Be Prissin Me

Ok – I don’t know if I’ve explained about Prissin’ yet and I don’t care to follow my own instructions and read through the archives. So, I am going to explain it now and if I’m repeating myself fell free to skip down the page a little.

About a month or so ago Baby Girl came in from playing with Prissy, slammed the door, grabbed the remote and plopped down in the chair. This is very odd for a weekend day because usually she and Prissy have to be tracked down when it gets dark. I asked her why she wasn’t outside with Prissy to which she informed me, “I am taking a break from her for a while”. Ok – that should’ve been enough for me as I am always telling her how when they start getting on each others nerves they should just take a break and separate for a while……..but noooooo – I had to push it. I asked, “What happened?” because I hadn’t gotten my daily dose of drama that I have become dependent on to live. She found her spot on the ceiling behind me to stare at, put the remote down and her hands on her hips and said, “Because she was Prissin’ me and I don’t have to take it.” All of a sudden I realized that I have lost touch with this new generation as I had no idea what “Prissin’” was. So, because I want to be “in touch” with my child I asked, “What does that mean?”

At this point, she takes a deep breath, rolls her eyes and tells me, “I told her that she has been Prissin’ me all day and that I am 8 and she is 6 and that a younger person can’t Priss and older person but she kept on doing it so I told her that if she didn’t stop it I was going to Priss her back and she wasn’t going to like it AT ALL but she kept on doing it so I just told her that I needed a break because I didn’t have to take her Prissin me and I was going home for a while until she could learn the rules of stuff”.

You notice that last EXTREMELY long sentence with NO punctuation? Yeah, she didn’t take a breath during that entire rant. Sad thing is, I’ve now lost 15 minutes of my life that I will never get back and I STILL don’t know what Prissin is. So, I called Nana to see if she has heard of this odd ritual. Nana says that she has no clue what Prissin is but being that she is older than me, she better not catch me Prissin her. I asked Honey, since he’s younger than me, and he said that he’d never heard of it but he’d better not catch me Prissin him just because I’m allowed to. So, there I was, I didn’t know what Prissin was but I had this feeling that I really wanted to try it on someone.

About that time, Prissy rang the doorbell and Baby Girl answered it. I couldn’t hear what they were saying so I walked to the door, opened it wider and asked Prissy if she was finished Prissin Baby Girl. Prissy informed me that she “didn’t even Priss her at all” in kind of a snotty little voice and Baby Girl almost comes unglued. She yelled, “YES YOU DID! You were standing on the driveway and I asked you if you wanted to play school and you said no. I asked you if you wanted to play with our dolls and you said no. I asked you if you wanted to draw on the sidewalk and you said no and then you just turned around and walked into the garage! QUIT LYING Prissy!” Prissy then turned and walked away.

I am now standing there trying to compute all of this because what I have gathered from this exchange is that Prissin is turning around and walking away. I might go as far as to say it is disagreeing with someone and THEN turning and walking away but I really think it’s just the walking away part. Oh my, this is very disturbing. I mean, my 8 year old has informed me of the rules that a younger person is not allowed to Priss an older person so I can no longer plead ignorant. I don’t know if I am going to be able to function under these new guidelines? I mean, I would always have to be the last one to leave a room or I would have to always walk backwards. Which brings up another issue, what if I am walking backwards away from the group I am talking to but in the process accidentally walk away from an elderly person – have I Prissed them unknowingly? Oh no – I don’t think I’m going to be able to do this. Will I have to start carding people before I can proceed through a crowd……..oh, no, oh, no………I was beginning to panic. I grabbed Baby Girl by the shoulders and said, “What EXACTLY is Prissin?” Baby Girl rolled her eyes and says, “I don’t know, it’s just something we say when we don’t like what the other one is doing”. Oh thank God!!!

We have now adopted this word into our daily lives. For example – if Honey comes in the room and says, “Where are my glasses” and I say, “I don’t know I don’t wear them” he would be well within his rights to assume he has been Prissed. So, the next time that you are in a situation where a younger person is giving you grief about something just put on your best serious face and say, “Looky here – you’d best not be Prissin me” and turn and walk away. By the time they figure out what the heck you are talking about, they will have forgotten what they were griping about and leave you alone. Trust me, it works. I’ve tried it on several occasions and have YET to be asked what I meant. Good luck and Happy Prissin.