Kids are Blind

Is it just my kids, or is this normal?

There were a couple of goldfish crackers on the kitchen floor. I asked the boys who was eating goldfish, and was told Calfgrit7 was. I asked him to come pick up the crackers and put them in the garbage. (Yes, I could have picked them up, but they need to clean up their own messes, even minor ones.) So CG7 starts walking towards me to pick up the crackers off the floor. Satisfied that he was going to do what I told him, I walked away.

A few minutes later, I walked through the kitchen and noticed the crackers are still on the floor. What the hell? When I left, CG7 was three feet from them and closing on the crackers. But somehow he missed and didn’t follow through. I had to call him back and stand over him to make sure he actually picked them up and put them in the trash can.

Later, the kitchen table was covered in plates and bowls. I asked who put all the stuff on the table. Calfgrit7 again. I told the little guy to please clear the table of his mess. So he walked over, picked up a plate, took it and put it on the counter, then ran off to play again. I called him back, “CG7, that was just one thing. Clear all your dishes, please.”

“Oh,” he said. He picked up one bowl and put it away. Then he ran off to play again. There were still  two more bowls, a spoon and a butter knife on the table. (What he had been doing with it all, I have no idea.)

“CG7!” I said, “clear everything away.”

He threw his hands up, “I didn’t know that’s what you meant!”

We both got into a frustrated argument over what “clear the table” means.

Calfgrit11 is also blind to stuff like that. We can put a laundry basket of clean clothes in the middle of his room floor, and he’ll play around it all day. When we ask him if he’s put away his clean clothes, he says, “What clean clothes?”

I have even put the basket in his doorway so he can’t go into his room without moving it. He pushes it to the side, and still, later he asks, “What clean clothes?”

If either boy is missing a tiny piece of a toy, on the patterned den carpet, they can find it in a few moments. But a non-toy or a chore sitting right out blatantly in front of them, it’s invisible. Is this normal?

Bullgrit