Is Stupidity Contagious ?

I am a firm believer in the old adage "You learn something new every day", and today I learned something new when I was checking my trusty thesaurus. I discovered that the words "Moron" and "Idiot", two descriptions I use a lot, are not really interchangeable.  Apparently an idiot is a stupid person with a mental age below three years, but a moron is a stupid person with a mental age of between 7 and 12 years.  Of course, now it is going to be my mission to find out what to call a stupid person with a mental age between 3 and 7 years. If any of my readers know the answer, please, do tell.

Meanwhile, regardless of the age, the stupid gene runs rampant in our house. We run out of cat litter late one night so Rob had the bright idea to substitute hamster bedding. I'm not sure if this was a stroke of genius or monumental stupidity. Based on the fact that that static cling caused the blue bedding to adhere to the cats' fur, and it's now tracked throughout the house, I'm leaning towards the latter.   

Then there is my son. Grady unfortunately left a pair of his trousers next to his hamster cage, and the hamster promptly chewed a huge hole in them.  I wasn't aware of this until Rob pulled them out the drier. He showed them to Grady and asked "I thought you were going to put these in the garbage, why were they in the laundry ?" and my little darling replies in all seriousness - wait for it "I was going to throw them away but I thought mum would want to wash them first". Go figure.

A couple of weeks ago we went out to dinner. Grady was sitting on the inside of the booth, and after a while he starts to squirm and then he complained he was constipated. We are offering him helpful suggestions, as best we could while eating, while he sits there looking at us with a vacant expression. "What are you all talking about ?" He asked "I don't need to go to the bathroom, I said I was constipated".  Now it's our turn to look confused, "What do you been by constipated ?" I asked him.  "I thought it was obvious" he continued "I'm squished"  By this time I have no bloody idea where this conversation is going, and I really think my son has lost the plot, when Lindsay in a rare flash of inspiration, suddenly clues in and said to her brother "Did you mean claustrophobic ?".  Bingo ! Problem solved.

To be fair I am not immune to the stupid gene. I was sure when I put the take away meals in the oven, that I had been instructed to leave the lids on. I'm assuming that when they caught fire and flames started shooting out of the oven, (which should be a rare occurrence, but sadly isn't) I may have been mistaken. Of course the kitchen filled with smoke, and then the kids started whining because they couldn't breathe. Whatever, bunch of wusses. I think it was just an another excuse not to do their homework. This is precisely the reason why I like to leave the cooking to the professionals.

Being Friday 13th, I plan on keeping a very low profile for the rest of the day. Can't take any chances when you have luck like mine.  Have a great weekend, and I'll be back - I hope - on Monday !