Trees

Remember the age old question "If a tree falls in the forest, and there is nobody around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

A favorite song around here is

Trick or treat
Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat
If you don't, I don't care...

And then the line is supposed to say I'll pull down your underwear.

Being the mean mom that I am I don't allow my kids to say the line about pulling down underwear. To get around that they've been creative about inserting different silly things like "I'll knock down your silly door" or "I'll take your rocket for a week or two" (they make no sense) This song is sung any time of year whether it's Halloween or not. On occasion I have heard them whispering into friends ears what the forbidden line is and everybody giggles.

Tonight Emma was walking into the kitchen singing the song and caught herself before belting out the line about underwear. She quickly inserted some silly phrase about rockets for the sake of her mother who was listening (me). Then she asked "mom, if I sing it to a tree than is it okay since they don't wear underwear anyway?" I gave her a funny look and said "huh?" She replied "If I sing to a tree, and nobody is standing by me, than is it okay since the trees don't have underwear ?"

So...the question isn't whether a tree falling in the forest makes a sound. The real question is: if you sing to a tree about pulling down it's underwear does it really count as something naughty since trees don't wear underwear?