Moments in parenting

[insidevoice]

I'm sure we all have moments with our kids when we realize just how complicated they can be.  I figured I'd share my moment of the evening with DD because it left me laughing...

DD: "No mom, I can't go to bed yet. I have to experiment with the different things that will impact the buoyancy of the different boat designs I am trying." 

Me: "It's really late, you can experiment with that tomorrow."

DD: "I will experiment with it tomorrow, but the principles of physics might be different in this time and space than they will be in tomorrow's time and space, I really can't just abandon this opportunity." 

Me: "Uhhhh... want a cookie?" (because really, that wasn't what I anticipated as an argument from a nine year old...)

She did wrap up her experiment for the night shortly after that. 

What odd moments have you had in the Adventures of Parenting?

[FarmerBeth]

Yesterday, DS (11) was at the audiologist, and unimpressed, but then he got impressed by an odd combination of engineering and philosophy.

DS "So that thing in my ear is a bat"

Audiologist:"Huh?"

DS: It seems to be using sound waves to take pictures of my ear like echolocation in bats.  It's like a mechanical bat."

Audiologist:"Well, yeah, actually it does work like that"

Later on..

DS:"These sounds are boring me to death!  I will die!"

Audiologist:"I listen to them my whole work day"

DS:"You made a conscious choice to do this job, so either you think it's not boring or you didn't realize that you can just quit."

Audiologist:"Well some of it is repetitive but I think hearing is very interesting."

DS: "So why aren't you inventing a mechanical sound tester to go with the mechanical bat?  Then you could just read the results and figure out what it means, later.  I think you are a pretty nice guy but your job is torture."

[Roar]

That sounds so uncomfortable. Does he have ASD?

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by FarmerBeth 

DS:"These sounds are boring me to death!  I will die!"

Audiologist:"I listen to them my whole work day"

DS:"You made a conscious choice to do this job, so either you think it's not boring or you didn't realize that you can just quit."

One day in 7th grade, my DD had a similar conversation with her social studies teacher. She really liked the teacher, but seriously questioned why she had become a 7th grade social studies teacher. She asked her, very sincerely, if her career was working out the way she expected, or if when she was in college it sounded like it would be more fun to do this kind of work than it actually turned out to be.

[FarmerBeth]

Originally Posted by Roar 

That sounds so uncomfortable. Does he have ASD?

He does have ASD, but fortunately he also has a sense of humor about it all later.  I was getting a kick out of the engineering solutions offered for the audiologist's torturous job - actually, I think the audiologist was finding it fun, too.

[FarmerBeth]

Originally Posted by Linda on the move 

One day in 7th grade, my DD had a similar conversation with her social studies teacher. She really liked the teacher, but seriously questioned why she had become a 7th grade social studies teacher. She asked her, very sincerely, if her career was working out the way she expected, or if when she was in college it sounded like it would be more fun to do this kind of work than it actually turned out to be.

I can remember thinking that way about the band teacher because of the initial noise of the beginning students, but it stayed as an "inside voice".  Sometimes one of my favorite things about my son is that he's mostly "outside voice".  A month or so ago, the minister told this parable in church about spreading good works the way a dandelion spreads seeds, and DS said, out loud, "I get the metaphor, but you should choose a more popular weed or people will be picturing a plague," along with "A foundation of rock is not always good, especially in an earthquake zone.  You need something with a little bend to it".  To be honest, it's a breath of fresh air, and I can't count the number of times people have said so. 

[insidevoice]

Originally Posted by FarmerBeth 

I can remember thinking that way about the band teacher because of the initial noise of the beginning students, but it stayed as an "inside voice".  Sometimes one of my favorite things about my son is that he's mostly "outside voice".

See, the thing I adore about this, is that this was *exactly* the driving force behind my screen name. 

I love that my DD is the same way.  I was better at keeping the thoughts caught in the filter between brain and mouth than she is, but I'm not sure that's always beneficial.