One thing about being a parent is that you can’t believe half the things you end up saying – things you’d never imagined anyone would ever have to say. “Don’t eat the toilet brush.” “Get the spoon out of your nose.” Lately, I have noticed myself saying, “What do you say?” And when my son didn’t know what to say after someone sneezes, I thought how life for young kids must feel like a pop quiz. One minute you’re pretending you’re a fightfighter, and then next someone is quizzing you, sneaking up on you when you least expect it.

But when does the pop quiz stop? Maybe never. At any point, we may be called on to come up with the right answer. We do it all through school and college, in job interviews, on the job, and then when we’re parents, they quiz us right back. “Why does it have to get to be nighttime? Why do people sleep? What animals hibernate? Why aren’t there any more dinosaurs?” It’s only fair, I suppose. They have to guess correctly when to say “Please” or “Thank you,” and we get to try to explain why sleep is recuperative.

We have quizzes everywhere in our lives. What to do when a car pulls out in front of us. What to do when 2 rude people are blocking the way in the grocery store aisle. What to say when our bosses ask what we think of their stupid idea.

The answers to some questions have more weight to them than others, but overall, our lives are made up of how we’ve answered. Did we make the right decisions more often than not? Did we learn? What impact did that have on you? On other people? We are ultimately the sum of our decisions. And that starts with what we are willing to learn when our parents ask us seemingly mundane questions.

Tags: advice, decisions, parenting | Category Life in General, Parenting