02 April 2009

Concrete vs. Abstract Thinking

Concrete thinking in a four year-old (this incident occurred a couple of years ago):

ThePinkThing is very fidgety and won't stop shifting around.
ND: Stop that!
TPT (still fidgety): Stop what?
ND: Stop moving around.
TPT (really fidgety now)
ND: What is going on? Do you have ants in your pants?
TPT (horrified look on her face, pulls down pants and underpants): I don't have ants in my pants!
ND (falls down laughing hysterically, then explains figure of speech to TPT)

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Abstract thinking disguised as concrete thinking:

(driving along a main road in upstate NY)
ND: Oooh, look a Dairy Queen!
FormerBoyfriend: Yeah, not too many of those around anymore.
ND (frowns)
FB: What? What's wrong?
ND: Why didn't you stop at the Dairy Queen?
FB: You didn't ask me to stop. You just pointed it out.
ND: But I meant for you to stop. I want some ice cream...

5 comments:

MWT said...

Heheh.

Men say what they mean and mean what they say. Women mean all sorts of things besides what they say, and sometimes what they say bears no discernible relation to what they mean. Alas, FormerBoyfriend. ;)

vince said...

I think MWT is, in general, correct. As a man, I have learned that, when in doubt and a reference may mean that the a woman desires that I take a specific action, I ask.

Yep, several female friends have noted that, while slow, I am trainable.

Anonymous said...

When one of our boys was quite young, I remember being in the car with the whole family and commenting to my husband that if we did something in a certain order, we could "kill two birds with one stone". From the back of the car came an quiet little voice, "Mummy, why do you want to kill birds?" We managed not to laugh too much, and carefully explained.

mattw said...

Sounds like something stupid I'd do...the second thing, not the first thing.

neurondoc said...

He's not a former boyfriend because of cluelessness, mind you. He was a jerk. The cluelessness was just a bonus. TheHusband, when told this story, said "I would've totally known that you were shilling for ice cream."