Turn Signal

I know that all parents think their kids are smart, but mine really are. Well, not genius smart, but gifted in certain areas, and yet somehow slightly deficient in other areas. And it’s funny how you can totally pinpoint which parent each trait came from (so basically I’m saying that we are smart and yet remedial). Ok, I know you want to know what I’m driving at, that surely there is a story here, and of course there is. This time it’s about Eli.

Eli has a very analytical mind (from his dad), he’s very precise in his actions and gets frustrated when he doesn’t perform to his expectations on the first try (from his mom). He has excellent logic and reasoning skills for a four year old, or at least I think so, I’m not around a ton of four year olds so I’m not an expert. For instance, he pays a lot of attention to driving. I didn’t start doing that until I was maybe 10 or something. He’s currently very interested in turn signals. He started out by asking what the noise was and if I had turned it on, what it was for etc. When it shuts off, he asks “Did you turn it off, Mom?” I tell him it knows that we are done turning and it turns itself off. He finds this very interesting and just observes for a few days.

One day right after I turn the turn signal on he says, “Mom, you don’t have to turn that on, I can do it for you,” and he proceeds to make a very accurate clicking noise with his tongue. I explain to him that people on the outside of the car can’t hear his clicking so I will have to keep using the turn signals. At the next stop light, there is someone stopped who has their turn signal on and I point out to him that we can see the light blinking, but we can’t hear them make the noise inside of their car. He’s looking at the car and says, “Oh,” in understanding, his “vast” reasoning skills at work.

Then I put the signal on again to turn into the driveway and he says, “But I can still make the noise, huh, Mom?” “Yes Eli, you can still make the noise for us.” And he clicks us into the driveway, because he thinks it's fun.