Common Sense

Can you teach common sense? My gut instinct says no. But then, can you hone it, form it, sharpen it?

I sure hope so.

My children are lacking some basic common sense. And I'm a bit concerned.

Example #1: Andy isn't a morning person. Seriously, the kid is awful in the morning. I've gone every route and nothing works. So we're at the point of wake him up, I let him watch a 5 minute Disney short at 6:55am and then he is to get dressed and eat breakfast. It seriously takes him 40 minutes to get dressed, eat and brush his teeth. Usually because he has to gripe and "stretch." So a few weeks ago, he was whining and griping and I just flat out told him that if the clock in front of him reached 7:05 and he wasn't dressed, he wouldn't get to watch his shows later that day. And I went back to my bathroom to get ready for the day. Seven minutes later, he comes bawling into my bathroom, still in his pjs, squawking about how he forgot to get dressed and now it was 7:07 and was he going to lose his tv shows that afternoon?

See, common sense dictates that if you realize you are behind and no one is watching, you hurry your little butt up and get dressed and maybe you'll slip under the radar.

Example #2: Rachel spends an entire evening working on a paper for Personal Finance (last minute, of course). A paper on the bailout...woohoo. I helped her out, she looked things up, she wrote a paper, we printed it out...all due the next day. That was last week. I get an email from her teacher that she's failing Personal Finance, so I dutitfully go look at the Parent Portal and see that she's missing a huge assignment - "Debate #8".

I ask her "Rachel, what is Debate 8?"

"Iduno."

"Well, you're missing it and it's big points. Did you skip out on a debate in class?"

"Iduno."

"Have you missed any classes recently?"

"Iduno. I don't think so."

"So what is this Debate 8 that you're missing?"

"Iduno."

Ack! So she gets home today and tells me "My Personal Finance grade is going to go up because I turned it in. Debate 8 was that paper on the bailout."

"Why didn't you turn it in that day it was due?"

"Doodle had it." Doodle is a friend.

"Why did Doodle have it?" I'm thinking "copying".

"She was drawing on it."

"What? You gave your paper, that was due that day, to your friend to draw on and then you didn't even get it back to turn it in? Why? Why?"

"Iduno."

Common sense dictates here that you would A) turn your hard work in to get graded, B) not give it to your friend to draw on, C) get it back from said friend if you did let her take it, D) turn it in the next class period if necessary, E) use your brain here.

Ack.