When did you realize exactly who your son or daughter really was?

[Answered on Quora.com by Norman Plume]

My daughter said, “Mama” and “Papa” right on time, but didn’t say much more than that. For about 6 months after, she said almost nothing. She would say Mama to her her mother’s attention, Papa to get mine, Yes, No (a whole lotta “NO!”), and a couple of other words.

One day, when she was about 17 months old, we were at one of those “All you can eat” restaurants. We offered her some soup, and she said, “NO!” We put the soup in front of her, and sat down to eat our stuff. A busboy came over to remove a layer of dirty dishes and my quiet little daughter said, “Excuse me, could you please take this soup too?” After that, we couldn’t shut her up.

We realized at this point we had a little girl who was VERY smart, Very polite, and wouldn’t do ANYTHING until she could do it well.