Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Help, my child thinks I am stupid!!

Tonight I decided to help my child with her homework, as I could tell that she was struggling with her math. To my surprise, she declined my offer and told me that I did not understand how to do the math, and that her teacher showed her how to do the problems right, and that I was showing her the wrong way!! I told her that I went to college and worked for one of the most prominent law enforcement agencies in the world..that I certainly picked up an education somewhere in my life's journey!! Her comment was, "well, they didn't teach you how to do fractions with mixed denominators!" Not to be outdone by my child, I quickly worked the math problems and checked my work on the computer..my answers were right. I showed the results to her!Still, she said I did the formula wrong!! My comment to her was that as long as you showed your work, and got the right answer, that it did not matter how you arrived at the right answer! She just rolled her eyes and buried her head in the book!! Speechless from her gestures, I threw the book on the desk and walked outside for air. When I came back in, she handed me her Latin book and told me to quiz her!! I felt extremely stupid at this point because I had no idea of how to pronounce the words in the Latin book. I never took Latin!! I tried to do my best, and finally swallowed my pride when I was corrected on every word by a sixth grader!!!!!!! She gave me a somewhat lopsided grin and said, oh well, you don't know Latin either, so I will quiz myself!! So tomorrow, I am going to show her that I am not stupid! I am going to the book store and buy a Latin language learning tape(do they make those??) and so the next time I will be prepared to study with a sixth grader for her Latin test!! My husband found our conversation funny, and asked her to get me to help her with her spelling words...I won't even tell you what happened then!! HA!! We had a Dan Quayle moment (potato/potatoe)!! This was not funny!! Will my child ever think that I am worthy to be her mom??? Stay tuned!! Stubbornness runs in the family...I think this child got a double dose!!!! Or maybe I am just stupid and she is the only one willing to tell me the truth!!

3 comments:

Chris said...

Don't ya know that all kids think that there parents are stupid. At least until they are about 21 or so

Anonymous said...

Why not take up a new language yourself, thereby showing your child that you know things they don't? I recommend the international language Esperanto.

Take a look at www.esperanto.net

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the advice, Bill. I like your way of thinking!!! I will check out the site and learn something new and different. What a great idea!! . I am always up for learning new things and always up for a challenge!