Thursday, August 23, 2007

Quick, while we're at the stoplight!

Joseph is very, very literal minded. Part of that is his age and part of that is the Aspergers. He doesn't really ger sarcasm and often if something is said as a joke he'll think it's real. (It's a a funny thing though because he has a wicked sense of humor and he often suprises me with how witty and clever he can be.) Jesse or I will often forget that he's like this and we'll make an offhand comment that then requires 5 minutes of explaining to Joseph exactly why we said what we did and what we really meant by it. The other day Joseph saw a public service ad on tv about drinking and driving. It led to this conversation:

Joseph: Oh no! That commercial said you can get arrested if you drink and drive!
Me: That's right.
Joseph: Oh no!
Me: Honey, that's a good thing. People shouldn't drink and drive.
Joseph: But you drink and drive all the time! (He's frantic at this point.)
Me: What? No I don't! What do you mean?
Joseph: I see you drinking pop or water when you drive.
Me: Oh, well sweetie, it's ok to drink stuff like that when you drive. They just mean that people can't drink grown up drinks, things like beer, before they drive.
Joseph: Why?
Me: Because those kinds of drinks make it hard for you to be a safe driver. If you drink those things and drive it's not safe for you and it's not safe for the other people on the road. That's why the police have an ad telling you not to do it.
Joseph: So it's ok to drink water when you're driving?
Me: Right.
Joseph: (long, thoughtful pause) And you have to drink your beer while you're stopped at the stoplight?

The best part was that he was really confused about why Jesse and I thought that was so funny. He really thought he had it all figured out.

1 comment:

Ferdinand the Duck said...

I love your kids.