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The next day Mom brought me back to preschool and asked the teacher if I could have my cubby back. I just hope your academic record doesn't follow you around, because it might be tough for me to get a good job later on if people find out I was kindergarten dropout. Monday I'm pretty sure Mom decided that whatever she tried with me when I was little didn't work out, because she's taking a totally different approach with Manny. For starters, Mom pretty much lets Manny watch whatever he wants on TV. So he keeps it on this show called "The Snurples" twenty-four hours a day.

第二天，妈妈把我带回幼儿园，问老师能不能把我的小柜子还给我。 我只希望你的学习成绩不会影响到你，因为如果人们发现我是幼儿园辍学的，我以后可能很难找到一份好工作。 周一我很确定妈妈觉得不管我小时候对我做什么都没用，因为她对曼尼采取了完全不同的方法。 首先，妈妈基本上让曼尼想看什么就看什么。 所以他每天24小时都在这个叫“Snurples”的节目里播放。

I tried to watch "The Snurples" a few times, but had NO idea what was going on. The Snurples have their own language that I guess only three-year-olds can understand. After Manny watches the show, he gets frustrated when no one in our family can understand him.

我试着看了几次《Snurples》，但完全不知道是怎么回事。 斯普尔兄妹有自己的语言，我想只有三岁的孩子才能听懂。 曼尼看完节目后，他很沮丧，因为我们家没人能理解他。

But the other day Mom read an article in the newspaper that said watching "The Snurples" actually sets kids back about a year with their language development and messes up their social skills, too. Well, that explains a lot. Manny doesn't have any real friends, and whenever Mom holds playgroup at our house, Manny is the only one who doesn't interact with the other kids. I think part of the issue is that Manny doesn't like to share his toys. So when kids come over, Manny locks himself inside our old dog Sweetie's exercise pen and keeps his toys all to himself.

但有一天，妈妈在报纸上读到一篇文章，说看《小熊维尼一家》实际上会让孩子的语言发展倒退一年左右，还会破坏他们的社交技能。 这就解释了很多。 曼尼没有真正的朋友，每当妈妈在我们家组织游戏小组时，曼尼是唯一一个不和其他孩子互动的人。 我觉得部分原因是曼尼不喜欢和别人分享他的玩具。 所以当孩子们来的时候，曼尼把自己锁在我们的老狗甜心的运动围栏里，把他的玩具都留给自己。

And whenever Mom tries to get Manny to play with other kids on his OWN, it backfires. At our church they have this new thing where they send all the little kids down to the basement during the service so they can play and color. But the first time Mom dropped Manny off downstairs, there was only one other kid in the play area, and he told Manny he was a vampire. I felt a little bad for Manny because I had to deal with a scary kid when I was his age, too. I was stuck in preschool with this boy named Bradley who terrorized me every chance he got.

每当妈妈想让曼尼自己和其他孩子玩时，总会事与愿违。 在我们的教堂里，他们有一项新活动，在做礼拜的时候，他们把所有的小孩子都送到地下室，让他们玩耍和涂色。 但妈妈第一次送曼尼下楼的时候，游乐区只有一个孩子，他告诉曼尼他是吸血鬼。 我为曼尼感到难过因为我在他这个年纪的时候也不得不面对一个可怕的孩子。 我和一个叫布拉德利的男孩一起上幼儿园他一有机会就恐吓我。

I told Mom about Bradley every day when I came home, and said I didn't want to go to school anymore. But that summer Bradley and his family moved away, so the problem took care of itself. After Bradley moved, Mom wrote a story called "Bad Bradley", about a kid who always misbehaves. Bradley was a bad kid in real life, but in Mom's version he was pretty much the devil. I think Mom was actually gonna try and get her story published, but Bradley and his family moved BACK

我每天回家都告诉妈妈布拉德利的事，说我不想再上学了。 但那年夏天，布拉德利和他的家人搬走了，所以问题自然解决了。 布拉德利搬家后，妈妈写了一个叫《坏布拉德利》的故事，讲的是一个总是调皮捣蛋的孩子。 布拉德利在现实生活中是个坏孩子，但在妈妈的版本中，他几乎是魔鬼。 我觉得妈妈其实是想把她的故事发表出来，但布拉德利和他的家人搬回来了

into our neighborhood the next spring, so she had to scrap it. Even though Mom never got her Bad Bradley story published, she used it to teach Manny about how you're supposed to behave in preschool. And I think that's one of the reasons Manny is so afraid of other kids his own age. Manny may not have any REAL friends, but he has a bunch of IMAGINARY one. I've kind of lost count of

第二年春天搬到我们的社区，所以她不得不把它扔掉。 虽然妈妈的坏布拉德利的故事没能发表，但她用它来教曼尼在幼儿园应该怎么做。 我想这就是曼尼害怕同龄孩子的原因之一。 曼尼也许没有真正的朋友，但他有一堆假想的朋友。 我记不清了