Walking through the mountains with my five-year-old twins, I asked them, “If I...

Walking through the mountains with my five-year-old twins, I asked them, “If I told you to sit here in the shade and wait for me until I came back, could you do it?”

Henry thought for a second. “Maybe,” he said. “What would happen?” I asked. “Would you get distracted and wander off?”

Alex: “Yup.”

So I knew the answer.

Instead of getting frustrated, I turned it into a test. I left them in the shade and stepped a little way off. “What would it be like if you had to wait here alone for a few minutes?” I asked.

They began doing figure eights, wandering in tight little loops because they have so much energy they cannot stop moving.

And when my wife and eldest son caught up to us, the twins were still looping in those same circles.

Now, I could have seen this as a failure. But what I saw instead was this:

—They listened. —They stayed close. —And they were honest about their limitations.

That kind of self-awareness at five years old is not a flaw. It is the foundation of maturity.