Not
long ago I came across someone’s description of their mother-in-law’s inability
to remember right and left or the cardinal positions. This description brought
back memories.
My
husband, and at least one of our children, cannot see a map in their head.
Because they can’t, they have difficulty remembering how to get to places they’ve
been multiple times.
My
husband has crisscrossed the town we were living in to run a few errands. Errands
I could have done by making a well-planned loop to every place I needed to go,
getting me back home in whatever amount of time I had.
My
husband would pass places he needed to go while going to someplace else he
needed to go. Once he was driving my brother to run some errands one of which
was taking my brother to his bank. I could have done all errands in about an
hour. My husband took at least three, including passing said bank FOUR times
before he finally stopped. My brother was furious and refused to ride with my
husband ever again.
I
took a little more persuading. The experience that finally got me to take over
the driving, or at least make sure I could map out our route was when our two
oldest were in grade school. I told my husband I had errands to run and he
decided he did too so we should just go together. Due to our daughters arriving
home from school, we had about two hours.
He
drove. He also ended up crisscrossing the town. (He didn’t let me dictate where
we went next at any time during this.)
Two
hours later I had to call my brother to get the girls off the bus since we
weren’t home yet. Thankfully his kids rode the same bus and my girls had to
walk past his place to get home. We were at least another hour getting home.
The
infuriating part is I knew I could have done all the errands in half the time,
and he knew when we needed to be home by.
He did things like that so often that I
started doing the driving and I rarely let him do errands with me. If we must
do them together, I’m mapping our route because I’m not wasting time.
Another thing he’s done before GPS was
readily available, is call me from wherever he was saying, “I’m lost.”
“Okay, where are you?”
“I don’t know. I’m lost.”
I had to patiently ask him for landmarks
or to take note of a street sign he was passing then try to figure out what
direction he was heading without him knowing that fact. Once I’d established
where he was, I could give him directions to get home or to wherever he’d been
going. Before GPS, this happened regularly. Now he generally turns his GPS on
whenever he gets in the car unless one of us is with him to give directions.
Now, as I said, at least one of our
children is unable to map things out in their head and remember how to get from
point A to point B.
When our youngest daughter got her learner’s
permit she needed my directions to get to places she’s been multiple times. Her
excuse was she’d never paid attention as a passenger. When she kept needing
directions to places she’d driven to several times I figured out she takes
after her dad. The big difference is she can still manage to drive around
without getting lost or wasting time backtracking. Yes, she has GPS but I don’t
think she relies on it as much as her dad does.
Of course, neither of them have any
trouble remembering which hand is right or left.
That would be me. I can’t tell you the
number of times I was giving my husband directions and I’d tell him to turn
left, or right, and when he went to do so I’d tell him it was the wrong
direction. I knew which way to go, I just repeatedly mixed up left and right.
Now, in the story I read about the
directionally challenged mother-in-law, they reminded her of which was left or
right by giving such hints as “you know, the hand you write with”.
Such hints would only confuse me. (I’m
ambidextrous.)
The solution in my family was “this-away”
(right, as in towards me the passenger) and “that-away” (obviously towards the
driver, left). My kids grew up with this and still use it.
Also, I’m perfectly fine with cardinal
directions. It’s just that left and right thing that trips me up.
But since members of my family can’t do
it, I always wonder who can “see” the map in their head and who can’t.
What about you?
Smile.
Make the day a brighter day.
