Battle of the ages: 6-year-old vs 3-year-old

I have had some very interesting conversations with my kids recently that made me realize how different they are and what a difference a few years can have on the types of things they say.

Tommy (6 years old)

While at church I was trying to draw a square on a Magna Doodle. While I was drawing squares, Tommy blurted out, "Those aren't symmetrical."

I laughed a little and said, "Do you even know what symmetrical means?"

He said, "It means you can cut it in half and have the two pieces look the same."

"That's right," I said. I erased the board and took my time and tried to draw a perfect square. "Here," I said proudly.

"Nope. You messed up the top corner," he said. Indeed I had made a mistake. For the next 5 minutes we argued back and forth about my drawing abilities as I tried to carefully craft perfect circles, triangles, and other shapes.

The abuse continued later at home as I picked up objects and said, "Well this is symmetrical." He would always say it wasn't because of some slight defect or pattern on the object that couldn't be cut in half symmetrically.

"Do you think a quarter is symmetrical?" he asked. I told him it was.

"Nope. It can't be because it has the word liberty on it. You can't make liberty symmetrical."

"Well what should it say on the quarter to make it symmetrical?" I asked.

"Lion oil," he said. "That's a palindrome and you can cut that in half and have it be the same on both sides."

Is this kid serious?

Actually, I was thinking about it and lionoil can't really be split symmetrically because the 'N' wouldn't be symmetrical. I'll break his heart when I get home. That will teach him to question authority.

Michael (3 years old)

"Daddy, what's this I'm holding?" he asked as he waved a toy hammer.

"A hammer," I replied.

"No it's not," he said indignantly. "It's a movie star."

What the ??