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Tweet:

長い休みの間に中１長男が朝ごはんを作ってくれるようになり最近は「今日は何がいい？」なんて聞いてきて（オイオイ新妻かよぉ〜！）とかニヤニヤしてたら今朝寝坊して慌てて出掛けようとする私に「ひと口だけでも食べてけば！」と焼き立てのホットケーキを口の中に放り込んできて普通にお母さんでした

My attempt to understand: As for the recent days of my middle school first year eldest son starting to make breakfast for me during the long break, I have come to hear things like "What will be good for today?" (Hey are you my new wife?), and after grinning, I wake up late this morning in a hurry to leave, and then while saying "If you just have one bite or something then go!" he comes and tosses a freshly baked hotcake into my mouth and was being a normal mother.

One thing I might be confused about: - for 食べてけば is this a shortened form of 食べて行けば? That was my guess.

Please just see if I got the general idea right (you don't have to translate the whole thing). I'm pretty sure I have most of it right but I might have gotten lost with who was doing what so if you see anything that looks off please point it out.

Link to the tweet is here if any context is needed: https://twitter.com/waruyoiseijin/status/1252532887368286208?s=20

Thanks for any help you can provide!

istrasci
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balderdact
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1 Answers1

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Unfortunately you do not seem to perfectly understand who did what. I think it's almost impossible to translate this long sentence into one long English sentence, so I split this long sentence into five. Hope this helps to better understand the story.

  1. 長い休みの間に、中1長男が朝ごはんを作ってくれるようになった。
  2. (彼は)最近は、「今日は(朝ご飯は)何がいい？」なんて(私に)聞いてくるようになった。
  3. (だから私は)「オイオイ新妻かよぉ〜！」とか(思って)ニヤニヤしてた。
  4. 今朝、寝坊して慌てて出掛けようとする私に、(彼は)「ひと口だけでも食べてけば！」と、焼き立てのホットケーキを口の中に放り込んできた。
  5. (彼は)普通に(私の)お母さんでした。

Notes:

  • The subject of 聞いてくる is the son. (てくる is an important hint!) This 聞く means "to ask (a question)" rather than "to hear".
  • Monologues are sometimes enclosed in parentheses. See this.
  • Yes, 食べてけば is short for 食べていけば. See this chart.
  • 普通に at the end is not "normal". See this answer. The last part is a joke, "(It turned out that) he was simply my mother (rather than my new wife)".
naruto
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    I think it's almost impossible to translate this long sentence Challenge accepted =) So during the long break my oldest son (Junior High) started making breakfast, asking me things like "What do you want for breakfast today?" (Hold up, we married now!?) so I was just smiling, and when running late this morning, he was like "Just one bite!", stuffing a fresh warm pancake in my mouth, exactly like a mom would – Earthliŋ Apr 22 '20 at 20:58
  • (I'm not sure I correctly understood your explanation of 普通にお母さんでした, but to me it seems that comparing the son's behaviour to that of a mother is not a reference to comparing him to a wife. Rather, the dad is saying that his son is behaving like a wife or a mother would — but the two comparisons are not directly related.) – Earthliŋ Apr 22 '20 at 21:09
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    @Earthliŋ Thank you, I should have said "It's impossible to me" :D As for お母さん, I felt this tweet was funny exactly because of the contrast between 新妻 and お母さん (the latter is older and associated with a more "pushy/strong" trait). BTW the person who tweeted this is a 主婦. – naruto Apr 23 '20 at 04:02
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    @Earthliŋ Good job, I love to see these kind of sentence chaining subordinate conjunctions forever :). I think naruto's explanation is correct in this context that 新妻 is the "setup" for the last お母さん. It's somewhat skewed comparison, but if you take that he is a "woman in family", and what has changed is the assumed relation between the author and him, the punch line should be much easier to understand. Cooking for family members do have a strong association with female role (much gender biased though), and the fact the author is a woman doesn't discount (in fact adds to) the joke's impact. – broccoli forest Apr 23 '20 at 16:46
  • @ naruto @broccolifacemask-cloth Thank you both for your clarifications! :) – Earthliŋ Apr 23 '20 at 16:54