An Apt Analogy

Trying to work with Daughter on various projects can be quite frustrating. She is slow. Very slow. Slower than molasses in winter slow. She was helping me unload the grocery cart into the car today. I put in 3 bags and 2 5 gallon water bottles in the time it took her to put 1 5 gallon water bottle in the car. She is also has spatial disabilities. Tell her to move right, and she'll go left. Tell her to come forward and she'll go sideways. Tell her something is on the floor right behind her and she'll move forward and look of in who knows what direction.

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I bought a new desk chair at the warehouse store today. The old one has has a spring poking my left thigh for several years, and the height doesn't adjust. I'm having problems I know are connected with working on my computer with the keyboard too high. I'm getting a small inheritance from Mom, so today I bought a new desk chair. I wrestled the box out of the car and onto the back steps. Daughter wanted me to take it back down the steps because she couldn't figure out how to get around it. I told her to just hold the door open. I stood inside the door and she was standing outside, I told her to lift up on her end and I'd lift up on mine. I would have done it all myself, but she was concerned it was too heavy for me and I'd hurt my back. She put her hands in the appropriate spot, but she didn't lift. I finally lifted my end and pulled it up the last step. We got it into the back porch, and she's grunting and groaning at her end. "Just push it." She looked confused and took her hands off the box. I easily pulled it forward on the carpet runner.

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One year Brother went camping with us. We decided to go canoeing one day. He got a kayak, and Daughter and I were in a canoe. I would give Daughter directions and she would do the opposite of what I was telling her. At lunch I informed him we were trading, and I'd take the kayak for the afternoon. That evening he told me that canoeing with Daughter was like trying to push a shopping cart with a broken front wheel. I thought that was an apt analogy. She wants to be helpful, she just isn't able to comprehend spatial directions. Occasionally it would be nice to have someone who could truly help me push something heavy, but she's more likely to pull against my pushing. She has a difficult time maneuvering a shopping cart, too.

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It's one of the little things that can be both surprising and annoying. A broken wheel on a shopping cart.