Wednesday, February 9, 2011

From a Three Year Old's Perspective

I handed my oldest son Gunner a juice box from the front seat of our car as we were pulling out to make the daily trek to day care. All morning we had been going over Spanish words because Handy Manny (whom I would marry if he was real thanks to his ability to calm my children down and have them focus for 30 minutes a day) speaks Spanish various times throughout the cartoon.

As Gunner began to open up his juice box, he said "Grass Ass, Momma." A very perplexed look came over my face as I scrunched my eye brows and quickly turned my head to ask him..."What did you say Gunner?" Trying to figure out if I should scold him for swearing or laugh because who would have told him Grass and Ass go together?

"Grass Ass, Momma" and in a very proud, confident three year old (almost four) tone he adds, "It means thank you."

I must be getting slower with each child, but after another moment of processing I realized he was trying to say Gracious. I smiled partly relieved that I wouldn't have to explain we don't  swear and kill his confidence and partly because only a three year old could produce statements like that...

As I continued to think about the conversation I starting thinking about how often, consumers say with confidence words and phrases such as  "organic", "cage-free", "free-range". They spread these phrases from one uninformed person to the next.  In the end, consumers want to know their food is safe and if buying something with the label "organic" makes them feel safe - whether it truly is or not is irrelevant for this conversation - then they'll buy it.

Because you can feel confident in what you say or the actions you take and still be way off base. It's when we as agvocates smile, look for that teachable moment and instead of killing confidence, shift the consumer's knowledge to correct information.

Consumers sharing correct information can impact so much more.....

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