Smarter Then I Look

The other day my middle daughter Aly came in from school and told me that something was wrong with the defroster on her car. Apparently no air was blowing onto the windshield and she decided that she would need a rag to keep it clear. I suggested to Aly that she might need to turn the dial for the air to adjust where the airflow goes and she replied, "No Mom, that's not it, it's broken!" "Hmn…OK" I said, "I guess you will have to have Dad take a look at it". I figured why argue with her if she was so sure she was right. I do not need the defroster to work, she does, so it's her problem and she will figure it out.

The next morning Aly ran back in after heading out the door for school, "Dad? Can you come look at my defroster, it is not working" So off Mark went to save the day. When he came back in after saving our damsel in distress he told me that he had shown her that she had to turn the dial to adjust the air flow. That's funny; I swear I had just said that the day before!

Later that day when Aly came home I asked her how the defroster had worked after her Dad had helped her and she replied, "Fine, but I do not like that I don't have heat when the defroster is on" "Um…Aly if you want heat you have to turn the knob to the defroster and heat area of the dial." I said in the most matter of fact non confrontational way I could. That is when Avery piped in "I was going to mention that to you Aly, but I figured you knew what you were doing" Honestly, at that point all I could do was laugh. It took two days to help my daughter learn something that if she had given me a chance to begin with would have been handled in two minutes.

All I can say to my children at this point is that I am smarter then I look. I have had my fair share of defroster dials and other fun live experiences and I am ready, willing and able to help you out when you need it. The hard part is apparently you need to figure this stuff out for yourselves. I'll just be over here if you need me!