Nothing

"Hey girls, what are you doing?" (This is normally after you either hear a very loud banging sound, or unusual silence.)
"Hon, what's that?"
"What are you up to?"
"Whatcha looking at?"

To all these questions and more, I have gotten the same response, "nothing." About a month or so ago, Chris had been looking through some papers and made some kind of noise...it had a thinking/ "oh, that's interesting" sound to it, so I asked him what he was reading - only to get that "nothing" response. So, I thought about it - alot actually. What does "nothing" really mean? I did a little digging and came up with this:

• In no respect; to no degree; "he looks nothing like his father"
• A quantity of no importance; "it looked like nothing I had ever seen before"
• Nothing is commonly understood as the lack or absence of anything at all. Colloquially, the term is often used to indicate the lack of anything relevant or significant, or to describe a particularly unimpressive thing, event, or object.

Take note of that last one..."it is often used to indicate the lack of anything relevant or significant, or to describe a particularly unimpressive thing, event, or object." So, when you hear and then question that loud bang, or that interesting noise - is the appropriate response "nothing?" Maybe we should work on honesty here & say..."That noise was Christianna. I just kicked her off my bed & she fell on the floor. Then she got mad and threw the snow globe at me & it smashed off the wall and broke all over the place. Then I stepped on it & I am bleeding all over the carpet."

Hmmm...maybe I would rather the "nothing" response here. Could it just be a way for my family to protect me from losing my mind over these things? You be the judge, how is it used in your home?

P.S. In case you were wondering, that scenario with the girls has not played out, in it's entirety....yet.