Duthie On...

Being a parent, you start to notice the origins of certain types of behaviors.

Kids aren't stupid, and like most of us, their gut instinct when they get in trouble is to figure out how to avoid responsibility for what they've done. This is the first in a series of posts on the rules by which they do this.

The first rule of evading responsibility is to play dumb.

If you're a parent, you've experienced this. Your kid pinches their brother or sister, who starts to cry. You scold the older sibling and ask: "Why did you pinch your brother!?!" The answer, of course, is "I don't know," as if somehow that will let them get away with it.

What's interesting is that even though this tactic rarely works as a kid, we still often use it as adults. While I can't speak for women, I'm sure most men will identify with this:

Picture yourself driving along the highway, in a hurry to get somewhere. You get pulled over by a state trooper, who walks up to your window and says: "Do you have any idea how fast you were going?"

Of course, you answer: "Why no, officer...was I speeding?"

Now you know full well that you were doing 80 in a 65, you just hope that the officer will take pity on such a poor moron as yourself and not ticket you. Unsurprisingly, this tactic works as poorly for adults as it does for kids.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 02 2007 and is filed under Blog.
Tagged as: evading-responsibility, parenting
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