When giving directions, it is important to be thorough and clear. It is not enough that I know the outcome I’m hoping for; I need to take the time and energy to communicate it clearly to others. Children, especially, need clarity, as life experience might not fill in the gaps that adults assumedly possess. Which brings me to another point– don’t assume anything.

The day was like any other day in our current string-of-days: I was on the couch, nursing my third-trimester state with a bowl of cherries, and giving instructions to my oldest arrow to begin dinner preparations. On the menu was a simple dinner of baked potatoes with fixins’ and a salad. I instructed my son to turn on the oven, wash nine potatoes, poke a hole in them, and then place them in the oven.

He brought me a potato and a knife and asked pointedly how I wanted the hole to be poked. I modeled the task, and gave him back the knife, instructing him to hurry along before the oven completely preheated. Then he asked from the kitchen what he should put the potatoes on.

[This is where I should have clarified.]

I replied that he should place the potatoes on a cutting board, to which he answered that they wouldn’t all fit.

[I should have clued in by now, but I didn’t.]

I told him that only one potato needed to fit on the board at a time. Minutes later, the smell of melting, burning, cooking plastic filled the air, along with my son’s shrieks. (Yes, he shrieked, but give him a break, as he’s still only seven.) He had placed the potatoes in the oven …on the plastic cutting board.

My third trimester self flew off the couch faster than when the UPS man rings the doorbell. I rescued the potatoes, pitched the cutting board, consoled the kid, fixed the salad, and wondered how many more years I’d have to go until I could give abbreviated instructions. If yesterday was any indication, I’d say there’s still some time.

It is a son’s duty to listen to instruction, but it is a mother’s obligation to make sure the instruction has some wisdom to it.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
They will be a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.
Proverbs 1:7-9