Be Very Specific

Parenting is not an easy task and sometimes I wonder why I took up the challenge in the first place! There are times when my kids drive me up the wall but there is also lots of fun and laughter in the home. The house seems so very quiet when they are not around.

On Sunday night, my hubby and I attended a wedding dinner, so my kids went to spend time with their grandparents for a few hours. My parents-in-law took them out for dinner and because my daughter was having a cough, she sent me this sms:

Miss PreTeen: What can I drink? (asking me what drink she could order at the restaurant)

Me: Warm water...haha (knowing that she liked to order fruit juice or soft drinks when eating out). Anything without ice.

I thought that she would have the common sense to order something warm or at room temperature. Later my son told me that she ordered a can of Coke and it came with a glass of ice cubes, but she just drank from the can. But...here comes the dreaded but...the can of Coke was from the fridge. After all, I had said anything without ice will do, but I didn't specify that she couldn't drink cold drinks...SIGH!

pic fr Yelie1007

This reminds me of an incident one night when we were going for a church meeting. My son had just come back from school and was having his dinner, so we asked him to wash the dishes after finishing his meal. When we came home, I went into the kitchen and the dishes were all washed and stacked neatly on the dish rack, but...ah ha, here comes the but again...all the cutlery were still in the sink, unwashed...big SIGH!

pic fr HavanaBrown

Mr. CoolTeen says that I need to be more specific when giving instructions...so I suppose common sense is not so common after all?!!