Out of the Mouths of Babes
My 5-year old son and I were driving home from Taekwondo last night and had an interesting discussion. We were both tired after a good workout and for the first half of the ride home we just sort of sat there quietly listening to the wind whip around through cab from the open windows of my truck. While we were sitting at a stoplight he just asked me out of the blue “Why can’t you see your nose when it is right between your eyes?”Ok. This isn’t the “meaning of life” question but it was rather startling to come out of the blue from a 5-year old. After I finished stammering a little bit, I tried my best to explain that his two eyes actually act to focus on a single point out in front of his face past his nose. His response was a simple “Oh.” That was it. How do you read into this?!? I asked if he understood and the look on his face clearly showed that he didn’t, but knew I was struggling to explain it to him and he was attempting to save me the trouble. I love that kid.
Before we left the Do-Jahng, his mother told me that he had acted up that afternoon and that he was to have no Easter candy and no X-Box for the night. I acknowledged this and there was no argument from him. After we had our deep discussion about why he couldn’t see his own nose, he responded by asking if he could have some birthday cake for desert when we got home. I reminded him that his mother said he wasn’t to have any treats tonight because of his behavior that afternoon. He repeated word-for-word what she said: “No Easter candy… no X-Box…” followed up by “She didn’t say I couldn’t have cake.” What could I say to that logic?
He had cake for dessert. :-)
posted by Bonzai @ 2:55 PM
2 Comments:
It makes ya wonder of all the skills children learn how fast the skill of negotiating is learned?
Are you kidding?!? You should know by now that it is the FIRST skill they learn. I'm sure you have subtle negotiations with Chloe already.
Besides, kids are natural negotiators because their sense of value is still developing. They just go for the gusto all the time because they don't know it isn't possible. "I want a swimming pool in the back yard.. no, I want two pools - one for me and one for my friend."
I love negotiating with Duncan. But I think Duncan enjoys it just as much and he has a longer attention span than I do. He know just when to hit you and when to move in for the kill. I'm telling you, kids are master negotiators!
Post a Comment
<< Home