I was out to breakfast with my friend Josh and his son Taran. Taran was around two at the time if memory serves, and really into learning taxonimies. Like a lot. As in he could name every dinosaur ever based on a picture alone. Because he insisted on watching so many nature shows, I learned what a probascis is. And on and on.

So Josh had to excuse himself for a moment, leaving me to entertain Taran. Taran had a book about vehicles, so natuarlly, I engaged him with that. The book had four vehicles on the front. I pointed to the first and said “truck”. Then I pointed to the second and said “truck”. And then the third.

When I got to the fourth, thinking perhaps Taran hadn’t learned about farm equipment yet, I pointed to the picture and said “truck”. At which point, Taran looked at me for a moment and said, slowly so as to help me understand, “tractor”, clearly glad he and I didn’t share DNA.

Of all the times I’ve been put in my place intellectually, that was probably my favorite.

Update: a shout out to Doug for pointing out that when think you a child might not know what a tractor is, calling it a truck might not be the most helpful approach.