The obvious isn't so clear

When trying to convey our ideas to others, it's important to remember that the things that are obvious to us, may not be obvious to our audience.

This happened to my grandparents when they assumed my mother knew her name. You see, my mom's name is Judith Ann, but everyone calls her Judy. As a little girl, her parents never called her Judith, unless she was in trouble and they coupled it with her middle name.

As in, "JUDITH ANN!! STOP WASHING THOSE KITTENS!!" (Some of you parents may be familiar with this tactic.)

So naturally, when her 2nd grade teacher asked what her middle name was, my mom told her it was Thann. As in Judy Thann.

Or take for example my 8 year old son Logan who, just this week, began taking a shower by himself in the morning before school (instead of an evening bath administered by one of us). This morning after Logan got out of the shower, my husband asked if he had washed his hair and his body.

I sat there thinking what a ridiculous question this was. Why else do people take showers but to wash themselves?

But, sure enough, Logan turned to him with kind of a quizzical look and said, "well...no, I just rinsed off."

And this was entirely our fault. We had communicated to him to take a shower, and he was doing exactly that. We assumed that he knew to shampoo his hair and soap his body while he was in there. Apparently people don't naturally know this.

The obvious isn't always the obvious to everyone.

If you find yourself having difficulty making someone else understand your ideas, take a step back. Do they know as much as you think? Or should you start at a more basic level? Go ahead and state the obvious.