My son used to be SO FREAKING ANNOYING! He thought he was being funny, but he wasn’t (although finally, at about the age of 15, he refined himself so that he is rip-roaringly funny now!) In fact, I was at a parent teacher conference for him in about 4th grade. The teacher said, “He’s a smart boy but…but…HE ANNOYS THE HELL OUT OF ME!!” All I could do was laugh and say, “Tell me about it. I live with him!”
I developed a secret code to flag him when he was being annoying, so I wouldn’t embarrass him in front of others. I said, “When you’re being annoying I’ll say “AT” so you will know to stop. AT stood for Annoying Thing. It turned into “The AT thing.”
“Chris, you’re doing the AT thing again.” One day, about two years later, when he was about 11 he said, “I’m doing the Annoying Thing Thing?”
I said, “What??”
He said, “AT stands for Annoying Thing, so when you say “AT thing” you’re saying the Annoying Thing Thing.”
“Just…shaddup, Chris!”