If they can't read it, it's wrong

Parenting is hard work, especially when the kids fight us tooth and nail.

Our latest parenting hurdle has been trying to get our children to improve their handwriting.

Their handwriting is similar to other children's - different letters and numbers are different sizes, it's a mixture of upper and lower case (not always used appropriately), and punctuation is scarce or non-existent. All of which I can accept .... after all, they're still learning.

But the one thing I cannot accept is care-less errors. Mistakes that are made because they couldn't be bothered taking the time to write legibly.

When the 0 could be a 0 or a 6 (it looks like a 0 with a cap). When the a looks like a half-written 9. When the 4 looks like a 9, the a like a 'u', and the n like an 'r'.

These mistakes, in my opinion, are completely avoidable - if only they would take more care while writing.

We've been drumming it in their head the fact that in an assessment, if it's not legible, it's wrong. It doesn't matter that it's close. It doesn't matter that the assessor is supposed to know that 7 X 0 = 0 so they couldn't possibly have written a 6.

If they can't read it, it's wrong. I've said this phrase so many times in the past few weeks that the kids know it by heart now.

And today, I think my son finally learned that lesson.

He received an invitation for a birthday party. The invitation was on a card that was written by the other child. The time of the party: 10.00 am to 1.00 pm.

So we took him to the venue at 10 am, but there was no one there.

Turns out, the birthday boy actually wrote 10.30, not 10.00. But it looked like 10.00. The birthday boy knew what he had written. My son knew what he thought he had read. But the only thing that mattered, practically speaking, was what was actually communicated.

Fortunately in this case, the mistake was a mere 30 minutes, and we ended up being early rather than late (or even worse, missing it altogether!).

It reminded me that so much of life works this way. My intentions don't automatically translate into my communication. I can say, "That's not what I meant" or "You should have known what I was trying to say", but if I didn't communicate it well, it's not up to the other person to read my mind.

If they can't read it, it's wrong.

At the end of the day, the onus is on me to make my communication as clear as I possibly can on my part.

That's a lesson I'm learning alongside my children.