Saturday, Sep. 24, 2011

Be more clear, Mom

Over the years, my kids have taught me patience, knock-knock jokes and even interesting facts I would not have looked up on my own, such as how many teeth a crocodile has. But I am still learning the lesson of how to communicate with the kids in very specific directions.

I often hear myself saying, "Wash the food off your plate and neatly place it in the dishwasher," "Put both of your shoes in the shoe bin in the closet" or "Put on a long sleeve shirt with a pair of clean jeans."

Because I have learned the hard way that, otherwise, I will find shoes shoved under the couch or a child wearing a sleeveless tutu to go to a football game. Or my all-time favorite of when Laurel put a dirty plate in the cabinet because I simply asked her to put her plate "up."

But on a recent beach trip, I was off my game and just asked Trevor to get dressed for the day. A few minutes later, he came back wearing the shirt he had worn the previous day, complete with bright orange ice cream stains all over the front.

When I sent him to put on different clothes, he came back wearing yet another set of dirty clothes. He quickly pointed out that I had not told him to put on clean clothes, just clothes.

Oh yes, of course.

As he ran back to his room, he laughed and assured me that one day I would finally get it right.