So ever since the kid learned to read she has had the habit of reading in very bad light -- as in dusk, as in nearly dark -- and I have been constantly telling her (with more and less profanity) to turn the light on, please, does she want to ruin her eyes?
Over the past few years she's been arguing with me.
Me: Will you turn the light on? Jesus, you'll go blind reading in the dark!
The Kid: (with some annoyance): I can see just fine.
Me: You're going to have to use those eyes for a long time, you know. Fuck's sake.
The Kid: Anyway, that's a myth. It's a big myth. How much light you have has nothing to do with what happens with your vision. It's all genetics.
Me: Where did you hear that, Tumblr? Just turn on the light.
The Kid: You can look it up.
(I turn the light on for her, with a huffing noise.)
The Kid: What, are you afraid to look it up?
Me: Fine, I'll look it up.
Several minutes later.
Me: Oops.
The Kid: Ha. Ha! Ha. I told you.
Don't teach'em to read, folks. That's my advice.
1 hour ago
7 comments:
J and I were having this argument today and despite me being right, he still tossed my text book off the bed.
Heh!
Frankly, it's one of the hardest lesson to learn: how to admit when you are wrong, when -- in fact -- you are so actually factually wrong.
It took me until I was about 25 or 26 to learn that this was not a disgrace but a mark of maturity: the ability to say, "Yo, you know what? You're right, dude."
It's still a little hard, sometimes.
Gets easier every time, though.
Your daughter may have been correct about what happens to her vision. But it does matter in the case of fatigue and comprehension of the subject matter of the text.
Yes, I did take "Light Bulbs 101" as an elective in my engineering training.
That's a real class, dorki?
Coolness!
I know that as my eyes have gotten worse (and worse and worse and worse) as I age, I need excellent light if I'm going to understand what I'm reading. So that sounds right!
At almost-50, I am now beginning to understand the "how can you see? turn on a light!" questions/exclamations I frequently got from my grandparents (my single parent wasn't so given to such admonitions; then again, he was closer to my age). I *do* need more light to see well now, but I didn't then (so let the young 'uns read in dim light and save energy;they're going to have to live longer with the effects of global warming, and the baby boomers are going to be burning plenty of light bulbs).
Yes "Light Bulbs 101" was actually "Illumination Engineering" It was a Junior year elective in the Electrical Engineering-Communications (versus Power) curriculum.
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