Anyone who’s spent time with kids knows they’ll latch onto the funniest things and repeat them endlessly. For one uncle, that meant teaching his niece a silly response to her mom’s go-to expression. What started as an innocent joke has now become a daily chorus in the house.
Her parents aren’t laughing, though. They think he’s gone too far, while Redditors are debating whether this is harmless fun or a step over the line.
A young uncle explained that his sister uses the phrase “you know what really gets my goat” nearly eight times a day
Playful interactions between young children and extended family members are not only common but often an important part of development. Research shows that when adults introduce humor, wordplay, or light-hearted “inside jokes,” it can support a child’s cognitive and language growth.
The American Academy of Pediatrics highlights that joking and pretend play help children learn flexibility, problem-solving, and social bonding.
In this case, the uncle taught his four-year-old niece to respond to a repeated phrase with a humorous retort. From a child development perspective, this is age-appropriate. At four, children enjoy repetition, silly word combinations, and learning new vocabulary.
Psychologist Lawrence Kutner notes that “children at this stage are drawn to wordplay and nonsense phrases, as they give a sense of mastery over language while still being safe and fun”. The child’s mispronunciation (“eh supacaba”) is also developmentally typical and not harmful.
Parents’ concern may come less from the phrase itself and more from the constant repetition. Young children often latch onto specific words or catchphrases, repeating them endlessly as a form of self-expression and practice.
What seems funny at first can quickly become tiring in a household setting, especially when paired with an already familiar parental quirk (“you know what really gets my goat?”).
The cultural element, introducing the idea of “El Chupacabra”, is not inherently problematic either. Folklore and mythology can be valuable storytelling tools for children, provided they are introduced in a way that does not cause fear.
In fact, stories about mythical creatures help children explore concepts of fear, safety, and imagination in a controlled environment. In this case, the child did not appear scared but instead treated it like any other playful “monster,” similar to the Cookie Monster.
Experts recommend that when extended family members introduce playful ideas or jokes, it is important to respect parental boundaries. Healthy families thrive when communication is respectful, and even harmless fun is balanced with parental authority.
While the uncle’s action was harmless in intention and effect, if the parents strongly dislike it, he may choose to redirect his niece’s humor toward other funny but less contentious phrases.
Here’s the input from the Reddit crowd:
Commenters all insisted that this is literally the job of an uncle: to “wind kids up and set them loose”
A commenter from Mexico chimed in with a joke that they were “offended” … just kidding, they loved it and declared him a “cool uncle
This group said the story made them laugh out loud, with one even calling the uncle a “genius”
Meanwhile, some pointed out that the parents’ frustration likely came from repetition fatigue
These Reddit users argued that this was harmless fun, predicting the niece will grow out of it quickly while her mom continues to roll her eyes
In the end, a four-year-old yelling “El Chupacabra!” at every turn may be mildly chaotic, but it’s also pure childhood magic. The uncle sparked laughter, the niece picked up a new word, and the parents learned the downside of catchphrase parenting.
But what do you think? Did the uncle cross a line by feeding into his niece’s comic timing, or was this just harmless fun that parents need to shrug off? And, more importantly, what’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard a kid repeat nonstop?
