Ever Eaten A ‘Walkie Talkie’?

 

If I were to use the term “walkie talkie” most people would think of a communication device. So you can imagine how surprised I was when a young man from Birmingham, England, asked me, “Have you ever eaten a ‘walkie talkie’”?

At first I thought I had misunderstood him, then I figured he was messing with my head. “Why would I eat a ‘walkie talkie’?” I asked myself. I thought this young man asked this question to check the I.Q. or gullibility of an American Senior Citizen. I wanted to flippantly respond to his dumb question by asking two of my own. “No! Have you?” followed by “was it good?”

I restrained the urge and responded politely, “To my knowledge I have never eaten a ‘walkie talkie’. Have you?” He assured me that he had eaten several and they were very good.

He succeeded in stimulating my curiosity so I had to ask, “What is a ‘walkie talkie’?” I wished I never asked. I learned that a ‘walkie talkie’ is an African dish made from the feet and head of a chicken.

The parental application of this anecdote is simple. We should not draw conclusions from questions we get from our children. If we don’t understand something we should ask for clarification before we make a wrong conclusion.

Letting our children know we listen carefully to what they are saying is a basic resiliency skill that we can all work harder to develop and implement.

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