I took my family out to dinner last night with some gift cards we got for Christmas. While we were waiting for our food, my oldest was being silly. I was fine with it but my wife was stressing out, so I decided to distract him with a game of Hangman.

We've been through what he can and can't repeat, and with his new responsibilities as a 'tween', I decided to have some fun with him. The puzzle I challenged him with read "Don't be a dumbass",  which was my code for him to calm down. He smirked and began to setup his puzzle for me.

I was presented with just one thirteen-letter word. I looked at the blank spaces, then glanced at Ben who was grinning back at me. I tried the first six letters I always use when playing Hangman: R, S, T, L, N, and E. Here's what I ended up with:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ S _ _ _ L

Then I tried C, D, M, and A (yes, you've spotted the 'Wheel of Fortune' letter pattern). Here's where that left me:

_ A C _ A D A _ S _ C A L

I'm not gonna lie, I was stumped and he LOVED it! When I guessed 'I', I was caught completely off guard!

_ A C _ A D A I S I C A L

Questioning myself and him I said, "Laxidaisical?" A word that I was aware of, and thought I knew how to say. He immediately corrected me and said, "Lackadaisical!" Stunned, I looked at my wife. She saw my stare out of the corner of her eye and paused her game of Tic-Tac-Toe to see what stopped me in my tracks.

She looked at the word and said to me, "Didn't you spell it wrong? I thought it was Laxidaisical?" Ben corrected her, and she looked at me and shouted "This was his word for you?" We both pulled out our phones to confirm that he was right, and to find out for sure what it means.

You lean something new everyday, but yesterday, I learned four things.
1) How to spell 'Lackadaisical'.
2) The definition of 'Lackadaisical.
3) That my kids are incredibly smart, and my oldest may already be smarter than me.
4) I've been pronouncing 'Lackadaisical' wrong all my life!
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For your information, here is the official definition from dictionary.com:

Lackadaisical (adj.)

1. without interest, vigor, or determination; listless;lethargic: a lackadaisical attempt.
2. lazy; indolent:

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