I don’t remember why, but at the supper table the other night I said “I am so stupid.”

Joe nodded in agreement.

I said to Mark, with as much shocked outrage as I could muster “Can you believe he agreed with me?”

Unfortunately, he did believe it.  The boys get their snarkiness from somewhere, and it’s not completely my fault.

I said to Joe “Dude, when a girl, and especially your Mom, says something like that, in a self-deprecating manner, you don’t agree with her.”

That resulted in a few moments discussion about what self-deprecating means…

I decided to continue the teachable moment, expanding the thought to other situations in which you have to be careful how you respond, and said “When a girl asks you something like ‘Do I look fat in this?’ be careful about how you answer, because it’s usually a trap.  You can’t say ‘yes’ because you just told her that you think she looks fat.  And you can’t say ‘no’ because she probably won’t believe you.”

Before I could continue, Mark said “So the only thing to do is run away, as fast as you can.”

Everyone had a good laugh at that.

I don’t know what made me do it, but I said to Mark “So, honey, I’m pretty good about not asking you questions that will trap you, right?”

Yes, Mark got up and ran away from the table.