It’s very important to listen. I used to have a problem where I’d hear someone say something, but I would not actually register what they said. This resulted in me getting in trouble with my parents quite often for either not doing something or doing something wrong. We decided that the best thing for me to do was to repeat back what I was told. For example if I’m asked to do the laundry, I’d have to repeat by either saying “You want me to do the laundry?” or “Sure, I’ll do the laundry.” But that system doesn’t always work.

A couple of weeks ago, Mom and Dad were out of the house and I was left in charge. I did my job well, except that I almost burned the house down. Before leaving, Mom had prepared a really nice dessert but hadn’t put in the oven because she wanted to time it perfectly with the event later that night.

Mom called me and said: “Saif, I need you to put it in the oven for a hundred degrees and 40 minutes.”

“Four hundred degrees and 40 minutes?”

“Yes, for a hundred degrees and 40 minutes.”

Thankfully, Mom had returned only 30 minutes after she called me. If she hadn’t the dessert would have burst into flames. However, when she returned it had shriveled up and started burning around the edges and on the bottom. Seeing as I’m not very good at operating ovens and that I had never seen this dessert before, I figured that a smoky flavor may have been the desired outcome. I was just following orders!

I like to argue that it wasn’t completely my fault that I almost burned the house down, but neither Mom nor Dad support me. They say that is more my ineptitude that caused such a mistake but really, it was an understandable mistake. I still don’t think I should be held accountable for what happened.