Thursday, November 19, 2009

Revelation of the Day

(Originally posted at Rational Jenn)

My sweet little daughter is really really smart. She reads and can do all kinds of math and knows everything there is to know about dogs. And yet, she can hardly walk through a room without falling flat on her face, Sandra-Bullock-from-Miss-Congeniality-style. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. (But only a bit.) She just doesn't pay too much attention to her environment, and that can cause problems for all of us.

Today, I asked her to "Please move!" for about the fifth time while I was bringing groceries into the house. She then moved directly into my path--for about the fifth time. Near disaster--for about the fifth time.

So I said to her, "Honey. Do you know what I need you to do when I say 'Please move?' I need you to look with your eyes, figure out which direction I'm going in, and move AWAY from me. I need you to move in a different direction from me."

She just stared at me and said "Oooohhhhhh. Well okay! I can do that!"

Later, in another situation, I asked her to "Please move out my way!" and she stopped and looked around--and then moved away from me. It was a glorious thing!

So which of us had the revelation? I'd say we both did, don't you think? Because I'm pretty smart, too, and it never once occurred to me that she needed me to explain that!

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