We were driving home with the kids in the back and Rhiannon and I discussed something work related. Rhiannon’s comment to me about some ideas we were kicking around was “at least put a bug in his ear about it”.
I replied, “Yeah, maybe I’ll do that.”
And from the back seat, “Hey, you don’t put bugs in people’s ears. That’s not nice!”
So, we got to try and explain how that phrase just means to tell someone an idea and maybe they’ll think about it and do something in the future. No bugs involved. And after trying to approach that several ways, I thought we reached an understanding. No real bugs, no naughty behavior. Just a case of a misunderstood idiom. Rhiannon and I moved on with our conversation.
Apparently not all of us moved on because a few minutes later, from the back seat, a small voice muttered to herself, “I don’t like bugs and I will not put them in people’s ears for ideas.”
