Keep it from the kay-eye-dee-ess

You know how parents of young kids will spell out words that they don't want to say in front of their kids? Like this: "Have we got the pee-ay-ar-tee-why organized yet?"

Well what did parents do back in Dickens' days, before literacy was widespread? And don't try to tell me that kids didn't get pee-ay-ar-tee-eye-ee-ess back then. Parents would still have needed to say things like, "Once those kids are asleep lets have a tee-you-ar-en-eye-pee", without exciting the littlies.

Come to think of it, what do Chinese parents do? Maybe they carry around little chalkboards and write things down.

And why is it so hard to read the phonetic spelling above when it's so easy to understand when someone says it aloud? I found that I had to check it by reading it out loud to myself. There must be some funny brain thing, perhaps involving the brainic nerve. I'm sure that when I am a neurologist that one of my neurologist mates will be able to explain it to me.