Thought of the Day 08.14.09

Yesterday, my boys and I were all leaving a room when I noticed that my three-year-old had closed the door slightly ahead of the baby. Crawling into the backside of the door, Sage actually closed it on himself and, sitting directly behind it, became trapped on the other side by his own weight. To rescue him, I had to gently slide him back with the door until I could reach around far enough to move him back with my hands.

Then I scolded Ethan for being mean to the baby, explaining, “Sage doesn’t know how to open the door to get out, so you have to leave the doors open for him.” Even as I was saying it in my stern voice, I realized I was making a mistake. Obviously, this is a pretty complicated physical situation, and although Ethan is smart enough to not trap himself in this way, he isn’t smart enough to figure out that Sage isn’t yet that smart.

That’s when it dawned on me that I hadn’t been smart enough to realize that Ethan wasn’t smart enough to take account of the way Sage wasn’t smart enough to escape. What did I learn? Think first; scold second.