Isn’t it weird, the things you remember?
Maybe I remember this because I really hated being wrong.
Way back when I was in second grade, sometimes the way my mind worked would cause me to get things WRONG according to my teacher.
It was something so silly, completing a worksheet on Fact or Fiction.
The paper was divided into four squares, with a picture in each. We had to circle either “fact” or “fiction” to indicate if the picture could really happen.
I raced through the first three. So easy. Duh. Did kids say duh 30 years ago?
But that fourth image…
It was a little girl holding onto a bunch of balloons and being carried up in the air.
And my second grade self thought hmmmm, well, I know that doesn’t usually happen. Balloons aren’t going to pick you up and carry you away.
But, then, I thought about it more.
I thought about the concept of a hot air balloon.
And how if you had enough balloons and you were a little person….
Like if there were thousands of helium balloons and one teeny little girl…. couldn’t they technically lift her into the air?
Not an every day occurrence, for sure.
But, given the right circumstance… it could possibly happen, right? (It could be I was imagining the “Up” house years before the movie)
And so, I circled “Fact.”
And got the answer wrong, of course.
And was mortified.
Because I hated getting anything wrong and if my teacher would just listen to me, she’d see that maybe my answer wasn’t completely wrong.
I try to parent that way: to listen, to hear the why, to understand what my kids are thinking. To know that in many cases, there’s something more to what my boys are saying or doing than a simple true or false or right or wrong. There’s a why. And even if that why is one that needs correcting, it’s still worth listening to.
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I completely agree you need to hear them out to see the why. There are so many gray areas in life, most things aren’t always black and white there is always a why.
This is truly one of the reasons I adore you so much, for your BELIEF in things.
I promise to always listen to the WHY….<3
I would think if you did have thousands of balloons and a teeny tiny little girl that would be possible. I would say that question really could go either way depending on how you thought about it. I like to think that a lot of things are not just black and white, especially when it comes to our kids. My daughter is in kindergarten and still has a little lisp. She replaces her S sounds with a “TH” sound. So when I went to check her homework and she spelled “something” like “thomething” I knew what she just trying to sound out the word like they encourage her to do in school. To her she was doing it the right even though it needed correcting.
Oh, I hate being wrong too. I was a very sensitive child! I still remember crying when I was corrected for not following directions on an assignment in the 3rd grade!
It’s kind of funny you write this, because I kind of experienced this tonight with my son, in terms of trying to understand him more. I think it’s important. I just need to remember to do it more and better. 🙂
You are so right, they often don’t think quite as we do, so in their minds it all makes sense. If we just really listen, we will understand them so much better. I hated getting questions wrong too in school 🙂