When the odds are 50-50 we should get it right half the time. Right?

Child sits on floor, one shoe on. The wrong foot. Of course. Why is it, with a 50-50 change of getting it right, they get it wrong a solid 80% of the time? It’s very weird.

“Oops! You’ve got that on the wrong foot.”

Child contemplates his/her feet, one shod, one bare.

“You need to put it on the other foot.”

Child lifts bare foot. “This one?”

Emma, walking by, offers a comment. “No, your OTHER other foot. Since you have three, and all.” (Emma, for purposes of clarification for new readers, is my youngest daughter, aged 16.)

I fix her with a mock glare. “Don’t muddy the waters, child. It’s complicated enough.”

“Apparently!” She trots off, giggling. Child looks at me, puzzled.

“I don’t gots mud on my feet.”

I look at the feet, now both shod. A shoe on each foot.

Both of them wrong.