A teacher called out my 12-year-old for not pushing back.

A teacher called out my 12-year-old for not pushing back. I'm a grown-a$$ adult and still fail at this regularly.

My kid's teacher gave her critique: "You said you could have this done by Friday. Why didn't you finish it well?"

She said she hadn't had enough time.

The teacher was confused: "Then why did you say you could do it?"

I’m gonna be honest with you. When I think about my own work experience as a full grown adult? I have done the exact same thing.

My boss said get XYZ done by Friday.
I thought to myself: there's no f*cking way I'm gonna get that done.
But I didn't push back. I didn't say "I can't do it with the capacity I have."
I just said, "OK, I'll get it done."

Then I worked crazy long hours to squeeze it in and probably delivered meh quality work. Because I said I would do it.

Is it reasonable to expect a kid to push back when most grown-a$$ adults I know fail at this?

Don’t get me wrong - I think it would be amazing if she started learning this skill now so she doesn't grow into an adult who fails to set reasonable expectations. But I'm not even remotely surprised that she doesn't know how to do this yet.

Your turn: when someone gives you an impossible deadline, do you push back or just work crazy hours to make it happen? 😬