Who's got the problem here?

When I was a kid, way back when there wasn't enough history for a WHOLE book and electricity was just a couple of people standing around with a piece of wire wondering what to do next, my brothers and I used to like to watch when my dad fixed stuff. Invariably if I made a suggestion nobody paid attention but if one of my brothers said it - "Good idea. Lets try it." Frustrating. Ironically, none of them can fix anything electrical where I do have some success...just saying ;-). I don't know if it was because I was a girl or because I was younger but they didn't even hear me or didn't believe me, or perhaps couldn't imagine I had learned anything.

Recently I realized I am guilty of doing the same thing to Dakota. When your child has always needed extra help...extra time...extra explanations, you may not see or believe it when that changes- even a little. Or maybe you resign yourself to no change and so you don't acknowledge it.

Dakota had a school program and I wrote it on the calendar. The day before he said he couldn't wait to go "tonight". Now understand, he can tell you the days of the week and that there was time before today but it's not always clear for him. For example, if he wanted to tell you something happened at some point before today he might say "yesterday last morning" or "another day last night", either of which could mean yesterday or last week. So when he said 'tonight' I assumed he was just confused and told him it was tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and when I said to get ready he insisted it had already happened and we missed it. I insisted just as vehemently that he was mixed up and to stop arguing. We sat in silence for 5 seconds before he said- with some attitude- "Why don't you call my teacher?". The insolence, implying that I was...

Yep, he was right and boy was my crow tasty. I had to apologize and I promised us both that I would give him more credit. And in the spirit of justice, he gave some payback. I took his suggestion and called his teacher and, with some attitude of my own, said that Dakota mistakenly thinks there is no program tonight- perhaps it was canceled (I'll show him)? "No", she assured me, "He's right. It was last night. I thought it strange that you didn't come so I asked him about it." I believe his exact words to her were "My mom is very confused." Smart aleck.