more monkey business

In my posting a few days ago I mentioned how the girls are my little "helper monkeys." And it brought to mind a funny story:
Once about a year ago when the girls first learned what helper monkeys were and we watched some youtube videos of them in action, helping people with disabilities, the girls liked pretending they were helper monkeys and so I set them to tasks and they pretended they were my "hands." I think they were supposed to be cleaning out the car that day, and at one point I looked out the window and thought I saw G doing something naughty or destructive--can't remember now--and went out to her in the car, scolding, "Bad monkey! Bad, bad monkey!" G was so hurt she burst into tears. I truly felt awful, because I had been trying to use humor to correct, but she had been taking her helper monkey job so seriously and turns out had not been doing anything wrong after all. Of course I apologized as best I could.

But sometimes, when I am angry at the girls, I hear myself saying in my head, "Bad monkey! Bad, bad monkey!"