Clean communication

I know this will come as a shock to many of you, but I am often amazed by my daughter....

On Friday night at the Giants game Maggie put this on her talker. 

If you cannot read it it says "I wash with Dad." I heard it and said "What!?!?!" You want to wash with dad? Is he dirty? Are you?" She slammed her hand down to say NO! and changed the sentence a little bit to say " I want to wash with dad."

She was clearly trying to tell me something and I wasn't getting it. Finally it dawned on me. Maggie was using "wash" because it sounds like "watch" She wanted to watch the game with Dad. She wanted to sit next to Steve for awhile. I asked her if that was right and she signed yes. And if I'm not mistaken there was the 18 year old "DUH, MOM" implied in that yes. 


Steve and I immediately switched places. If she can go to all that trouble to convey what she wants, we are going to give it to her. 

Maggie has done that type of thing before before and it always take me a while to get what she means. I need to listen instead of read it, because all of her language and communication is done by sound. Though they mean very different things, "wash" and "watch" sound very similar.

She does not really have a communication problem at all, I just need to speak her language, just like every other mother of a teenage daughter.