The worst thing anyone in my household can do is be ambiguous with an answer or statement. Lizze, Gavin and his brothers are all very literal and very black and white. Interpreting someone’s intentions or reading body language is not any of their strong suits.

I can read between the lines but everyone else in the house, not so much.

I regularly engage in verbal gymnastics, and it’s fucking exhausting. It’s pretty fucking frustrating too.

For Elliott’s part, he needs to remember that Gavin is never going to be very clear with his communication because his brain just does allow for that. Rather than assume there’s malice behind his fumbled words, ask him to clarify.

Gavin makes really bad decisions sometimes, and those decisions impact those around him. That said, Gavin loves his brothers and would never intentionally upset them.

This whole debacle came down to poor communication, and we have to work on that.

I was frustrated with Gavin because we tried explaining to him that he kept changing his story and that the way he said things, was sending the wrong message. He doesn’t like making mistakes, and so he just gets angry. All we are trying to do is help him understand that the words he chooses matter. We were very clear with him that he didn’t do anything wrong, and it just came down to communication issues between people who struggle a bit with communication.

He eventually settled down, and we were able to sit everyone down together. We helped them all understand what had happened and why everyone was upset.

I know Gavin likely didn’t learn anything and the boys probably won’t actively apply this to future situations, but they did end the night by playing together. I’ll take that as a win.