Recovering compulsive correctors unite!

[Tigerle]

Recently, I was at baby class with my DD and the instructor handed out oballs http://www.amazon.com/Rhino-Toys-Oball-Original-Colors/dp/B000BNC9DM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298907027&sr=8-1 for tummy time, explaining about why children find these attractive and what the thoughts of Emmi Pikler were who first created this Waldorfy version http://www.cleokinderladen.de/product_info.php/products_id/480

(Yes, it's a pretty intellectual class as baby classes go, works very well for me...)

One mom reached for one of the oballs and said "okay, I want my DD to try out the green cube now, she appears to really like those cubes..."

I opened my mouth to say "I think it's a dodecahedron..." and shut up again.

Good thing I did because I find i got mixed up and it's an icosahedron, and a truncated one at that!

[TiredX2]

How funny, because it doesn't have any actual faces I've always considered it spherical, or perhaps a spherical polyhedron.

I don't know why anyone would refer to it as a cube though (instead of a ball).

[no5no5]

Originally Posted by TiredX2 

I don't know why anyone would refer to it as a cube though (instead of a ball).

  I'd have been looking around for the cubes, wondering how I missed them.  That thing is no more a cube than a soccer ball is a cube.    And possibly less. 

Good job, though, Tigerle, for keeping your mouth shut! 

[LynnS6]

So at what age did you learn to not correct? I'm hoping that my dd will be able to join your club someday.

She was having a fit this evening after she'd gone to bed. She wanted to read the book that ds was reading because when I had been reading it out loud, it made us laugh. Given that ds was in the middle of reading the book at the very moment, her demand that he drop the book and let her read the chapter was completely ridiculous. It was also way past her bedtime. So, I finally yelled up the stairs, "Go to sleep! It's 9:55!" I then hear: Sob, sob, "it's 9:56" sob sob....

I confess that I laughed, and thought of the compulsive correctors club.

[Tigerle]

Originally Posted by TiredX2 

How funny, because it doesn't have any actual faces I've always considered it spherical, or perhaps a spherical polyhedron.

I don't know why anyone would refer to it as a cube though (instead of a ball).

Okay, call it a spherical polyhedron analog to the truncated icosahedron. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_icosahedron 

You're one of us, aren't you?

[Tigerle]

Originally Posted by LynnS6 

So at what age did you learn to not correct? I'm hoping that my dd will be able to join your club someday.

She was having a fit this evening after she'd gone to bed. She wanted to read the book that ds was reading because when I had been reading it out loud, it made us laugh. Given that ds was in the middle of reading the book at the very moment, her demand that he drop the book and let her read the chapter was completely ridiculous. It was also way past her bedtime. So, I finally yelled up the stairs, "Go to sleep! It's 9:55!" I then hear: Sob, sob, "it's 9:56" sob sob....

I confess that I laughed, and thought of the compulsive correctors club.

I am STILL learning.

[loraxc]

"Go to sleep! It's 9:55!" I then hear: Sob, sob, "it's 9:56" sob sob....

Lynn, sometimes I think my daughter lives at your house, or that there are two of her.

The other day I was, um, definitely NOT yelling at DD for hanging off the ropes on the old outdoor baby swing (as she has been told many times not to do since the ropes are rotting) and was interrupted: "It's not a BABY swing. Well, babies can use it--older babies--but really, it's also for toddlers who are like one or two...so you shouldn't really call it a BABY swing..."

STOP CORRECTING ME SO I CAN YELL AT YOU!

[Lollybrat]

Originally Posted by Tigerle 

One mom reached for one of the oballs and said "okay, I want my DD to try out the green cube now, she appears to really like those cubes..."

I opened my mouth to say "I think it's a dodecahedron..." and shut up again.

Good thing I did because I find i got mixed up and it's an icosahedron, and a truncated one at that!

That reminds me of one time I helped DS make an approximation of a sphere using his magformers.http://www.amazon.com/Magformers-30-Magnetic-Building-Set/dp/B000HDC3QE 

I called the resulting shape a "ball". DS was 4.5 years old and informed me that the shape was not a ball, but was a rhombicuboctahendren. He was right, of course. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombicuboctahedron

[St. Margaret]

This thread is making me crack up!

Also I'm pretty sure dd is headed for this club. Oh joy.

[PreggieUBA2C]

I thought this was normal...

And I also just assumed the ball was a spherical polyhedron (I didn't look it up). For fun, I break into M.C. voice and call it, "The SPHERE of cirrrrcles" in the middle of an otherwise usual sentence. It is a very versatile toy, though. I had no idea who made it or what it is entitled; ours was a gift. :)

[Tigerle]

Originally Posted by PreggieUBA2C 

I thought this was normal...

And I also just assumed the ball was a spherical polyhedron (I didn't look it up). For fun, I break into M.C. voice and call it, "The SPHERE of cirrrrcles" in the middle of an otherwise usual sentence. It is a very versatile toy, though. I had no idea who made it or what it is entitled; ours was a gift. :)

I came across the question Do you feel an urge to correct people with accurate facts, numbers, spelling, grammar etc., when they get something wrong? in this questionnaire intended to tease apart neurotypical traits vs asperger traits (and intellectual vs physical traits) http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php  which I felt the need to complete in light of recent events. I have no idea whether compulsive correcting is supposed to be an intellectual or an asperger trait though (they don't say).

I imagine that at least realizing that it's sometimes inappropriate to correct even if you can't help yourself means you're just an obnoxious know-it-all. Of course, learning to keep your mouth shut when socially (or professionally!) required is the higher art form.

I can just imagine the looks if I had launched into "it's actually a spherical polyhedron analog to atruncated icosahedron, an archimedean solid as opposed to a platonic solid like the regular hexahedron you have been referring to..."

(No, I wouldn't have been able to spout all this off the top of my head, I read up on all of this now because I think it's actually a fascinating and aesthetically pleasing topic...)

[PreggieUBA2C]

I do have that urge, but unless I'm with people I know well, I don't say anything, except to my dp once we're not in the situation anymore.

I did once launch into a lecture on the nature of yeasts when a woman I used to know, and who ate pudding cups like they had their own food group, stated matter-of-fact-ly that her perpetual yeast issues were the result of her genetics, as in some people just have more yeast than others due to genetic constitution. I may have gone on for a while...

This is unusual for me though. It was eight years of refraining-from-correcting-her pressure that all came bubbling out at once.

So I could be a guest member, I suppose. My dp, though, he may be presidential material.

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by Tigerle 

You're one of us, aren't you?

I will not deny membership.  ;)

Originally Posted by PreggieUBA2C 

I do have that urge, but unless I'm with people I know well, I don't say anything, except to my dp once we're not in the situation anymore.

So I could be a guest member, I suppose. My dp, though, he may be presidential material.

LOL.  I'm presidential material in our family!
 

[PreggieUBA2C]

<<<< Uh. muh. gawd.

How do I abdicate???!

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by PreggieUBA2C 

<<<< Uh. muh. gawd.

How do I abdicate???!

You're more of a benevolent dictator--- in for life (or whenever the DDDDC runs out ;) ).
 

[PreggieUBA2C]

Oh... so, like an empire.

[teachma]

It's a thing about detail and precision...at least, that's where it seems to be rooted for my 10.5 year old, compulsively correcting ds. Because yeah, he will pull the old, "It's 9:56." But he's also just as likely, if I say, "It's about 7:45," to demand, "But what time *is* it? I didn't ask you what time it's *near*!" My husband is similarly detail-oriented, somewhat of a perfectionist, and also inclined to correct (within our family, not so much with others), but my daughter and I, "big-picture" thinkers, don't even notice opportunities where we or others are slightly less than accurate.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by PreggieUBA2C 

I do have that urge, but unless I'm with people I know well, I don't say anything, except to my dp once we're not in the situation anymore.

I resist the urge most of the time as well. I learned long ago (probably early adulthood, though) that if I insist that I'm right and break out something to prove it, others dig in their heels, too. It's just not worth it to me in most cases to show others that they're wrong. 

In the OP, though...a cube? That would seriously challenge me, and I'd probably say something like, "where are the cubes?" as a completely passive-aggressive way to point it out. 
 

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by VisionaryMom 

In the OP, though...a cube? That would seriously challenge me, and I'd probably say something like, "where are the cubes?" as a completely passive-aggressive way to point it out. 
 

Well, in the situation I would want to say something too simply because "cube" is not a hard word to say and I wouldn't want a whole bunch of kids going around calling balls "cubes," lol

That does remind me of taking DD to the zoo when she was 15ish months and her talking about the "monkeys."  A docent came up and corrected her--- saying they were orangutangs.  Uhhh, yeah WE (DP & I) but as far as we were concerned "monkey" was just fine for a 15 month old.