so hard to trust

It's inevitable: your child reaches a certain age and decides that Mom is not as powerful, knowledgable or even as funny as he/she once imagined. In fact (as witnessed by said child), sometimes Mom loses things, gets lost herself, and forgets critical items ("Mom, you forgot to buy Kookie Cookie Crumble cereal AGAIN?!!!!").

Let's not even get into the ever-widening gap between what makes Mom laugh and what the child considers humorous.

And this is the time period before the teen years, when Mom loses all credibility. Some kids reach this stage at around 9 or 10; my 6-year-old is already exhibiting the stage-related mannerisms surely learned from listening to her older sister ("Mom, PLEASE don't forget to give me my allowance AGAIN like you did last week!!!") At least she said "please."

One day, the three of us got into an argument about who had their facts straight about what day of the week it was, and I began to get just a little ticked off. I wanted to yell at them I'm the adult here, I think I know what day it is and why can't you just believe me!!!! and stamp my foot to prove my point.

Then it hit me: this is part of who we are as human beings. We think we know it all. And in general, we don't trust that anyone else knows as much as we do.

Even omnipotent, omnipresent, infallible God.

When my 6-year-old queries from the back seat as I drive her to her friend's house: "Mom, do you know where you're going?" I think of my own questions to God: Do you know what you are doing? Do you know where you're taking me?

When my older daughter is nodding and avoiding eye contact during my earnest attempts to take advantage of a "teaching moment," I think of how how quickly I focus on the injustice of a situation and brush off God's attempts to reach out to me.

It's who we are, especially in this country: we automatically mistrust authority, sure that the person in charge really doesn't know what he/she is talking about.