You MUST be specific.

Being a stay at home dad (SAHD) for almost two years now has been and interesting trip. I learn again and again that I need to be specific and leave NOTHING up to interpretation. Teaching the Triplets to brush their teeth has been one of the times where I learned I needed to be VERY specific with my instructions. This was especially true when we switched to toothpaste with fluoride. I am also reminded that when they follow the explicit instructions but not the implicit instructions I need to give them some grace.

Here is how it went, the first time:)
Daddy - This is special toothpaste so you can't swallow it.
Triplet - I won't swallow it.
Daddy - You spit it out.
Triplet - I spit it out?
Daddy - Yes, you spit it out.
Triplet - OK
You guessed it, they spit it out alright... all over the mirror:)

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.
Anne Sullivan

Everything from airplanes to kitchen blenders and even chopsticks comes with an instruction manual. Children, despite all their complexity, do not.
Lawrence Kutner

Al