Not InBorn

I believe I had this exact same conversation with my mother when I was eleven:

The Kid: Please.

Me: I'm working! Is this important?

The Kid: But I need my waffle buttered...

Me: So butter it.

The Kid: But you butter things so much better than I do.

Me: And why do you think that is?  Do you think I was born knowing how to butter waffles?

The Kid: It seems like you were.  (Wheedling.) You do it so well.

Me: Buttering waffles is not an inborn skill.

(Here I make my crucial parenting error: I get up to butter the waffle.)

Me: (Still ranting): I can only butter waffles because I started buttering them when I was ten and between that age and this I have buttered eight million waffles.  (I am now buttering her waffle, mind you.)  What sort of parent would I be if I did not make you learn to butter your own waffle?

The Kid: (Smugly accepting her buttered waffle): One who does an awesome job of buttering waffles.