Canned responses are often important because they are simple, responsive and can reduce further conversation when needed.
MiniMe has, for years, shared a canned response, “I know.” It doesn’t matter who is talking to her or if the topic is something with which she is familiar, her response remains the same, “I know.” The other day, while getting out of the car on the driver side, at a location where neither of us had ever been before, I said, “Careful, there’s a lot of black ice over here.” “I know,” she replied while getting out of the passenger side. “How do you know? You’ve never been here before and you’re still over there,” I asked. “I know,” was her canned response.
Tree also has a canned response, but he only uses it based on ‘return.’ A few weeks ago I found a sweatshirt at my house that I believed belonged to Awkward so, when he and Tree were visiting, I asked about it. “Do you think you left a red sweatshirt here?” I asked Awkward. “Maybe,” Awkward replied. “Yes,” Tree chirped in. “What do you mean ‘yes’? You don’t even know what it is for sure or who it belongs to,” Awkward told him. “You say ‘yes’ because it might be something you want, even if it isn’t really yours,” Tree advised him.
“Thank you,” Live Longer said, contributing to their conversation with her new canned response. Turned out it was Awkward’s sweatshirt, thus, Tree once again got a good return on his ‘yes’ investment. I look forward to sharing this story with MiniMe who will most likely reply, “I know.”