I can't believe you're doing that for him and not me!!

I can't believe you're doing that for him and not me!!

"I just have a few errands to run." This sentence came out of my Mom's mouth all the time. Or when we asked my Mom, "Where were you?" She would answer, "Out running errands." She never really listed what she was doing she was just running those errands.

One day my sister got upset. She threw a fit angry and hurt saying, "Mom you're always out doing things for Aaron! Every day you do things for him, you are so unfair. You never do anything for me!" She was visibly upset and blamed my mother of preferring my brother. You see, errand and Aaron sound so close and all this time she was upset because she didn't know the word "errand."  To understand this correctly, you must be aware that my sister was adopted from Korea at the age of 16 and her English, though good, was still not at the level of a mother-tongue speaker. 

This is a classic misunderstanding! This happens all around us; in our families, at work, with friends etc.. You might even misunderstand your teen...imagine that! I don’t always manage to keep my cool, but I try, and from experience my advice is always, to stay calm, LISTEN and when misunderstandings do occur; have a good laugh. I know we still laugh about errand and Aaron.
 

—Allison Ochs