What do we comprehend?

Yesterday my boyfriend, Laura and I were driving in the car.  Laura was pretending to be talking on my cell phone to one of her many friends (you may know them, Snow White, Boots, Dora, etc).  Boyfriend decided to call Laura on my cell phone while it was still in her hand on the way to the store. 

 Laura was thrilled to be talking on the phone (what 3 year old isn’t?).  She was conversing on the phone with Boyfriend (remember he is in the car with us) and Laura finally says, “Who is this? Uncle Dan?!”  Boyfriend and I immediately look at each other and quietly laugh.  She has NO clue that it is him on the phone!  (Remember, he is in the front seat and she right there in the back seat).  They continue the conversation and she continues to ask who is on the phone and I tell her that it is Boyfriend on the phone.  She does NOT believe me.  She is clueless!  On the way home Boyfriend called her AGAIN she never figured out it was him even after I again told her it was him. 

 I share this story for 2 reasons.  One, I find it to be pretty funny and two, I think sometimes we hold our kids on a pedestal that it is way too high for them. 

I have also heard painting is a good stress releiver :-)
It seems to work for her!

 I will be honest I think my kid is smart.  I don’t think that she is a genius or anything but, I think developmentally she is doing well and she often surprises me with the things that she can do and the things that she gets.  But, my awesome story above perfectly illustrates a point that I know I often need to remember.  Our kids are still kids and they are still learning.  Lets not assume that our kid “GETS IT” unless our child has demonstrated that they do get it.  Get it?

 Additionally, I have come across way too many moms (and at times I have been guilty of it myself) that have to high of expectation on their children.  These moms HONESTLY do not do it on purpose.  But, what happens is we all tend to think our kids understand more than what they actually do because we start to make ASSUMPTIONS.  Their child demonstrated that they totally understood concept A so, then mom assumes that child totally gets concept B, and the kid DOESN’T.  Moms we then get frustrated because we think that the kid is just not listening when the poor kid actually just DOESN’T GET IT. 

 So, lets save ourselves one less stress and one less frustration and STOP assuming and start paying attention to our children’s specific abilities.