Today I’m sitting next to The Kid while he does his homework. This is a fine arrangement because I can easily point him in the right direction if he gets stuck. When he does get stuck it’s usually because he rushed through a question in one way or another. I know this because I was the same way. I presume that my parents were as well. It would only be fitting for that to be the case.

After two false starts on a particular question — the first after reading 1/4^th of the problem, the second after 1/2 — I found myself saying to The Kid and writing in an IM the following:

AArrrrrgh! READ. THE. WHOLE. QUESTION. BEFORE. YOU. ANSWER.

My mind flashed immediately back to my parents telling me the exact same thing several hundred times during the course of my academic career. I know that my parents are in Lawrence, Kansas right now, laughing out loud at me for reasons that they can’t quite comprehend, and I’ll tell you what: I can’t wait to laugh at (although really it’s with rather than at) The Kid when his children do the exact same thing.

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