I told a kid a riddle my dad told me when I was 7. His answer proves how far we've come.
This classic riddle takes on new meaning as our world changes for the better.

When I was 7, my dad told me a riddle.
"A man and his son are driving in their car when they are hit by a tractor-trailer.
Photo via iStock.
(We were driving at the time, so of course this was the riddle he decided to tell.)
The father dies instantly.
The son is badly injured. Paramedics rush him to the hospital.
Photo via iStock.
As he is being wheeled into the operating room, the surgeon takes one look the boy and says:
'I can't operate on him. He's my son.'
How is that possible?!"
Without missing a beat, I answered:
"The doctor is his mom!"
Photo via iStock.
My dad first heard the riddle when he was a child in the '60s.
Back then, most women didn't work outside of the home.
Few of those who did had college degrees, much less professional degrees.
Female doctors were few and far between.
Back then, it was a hard riddle. A very hard riddle.
By 1993, when I first heard it, the notion that women could be highly skilled, highly trained professionals wasn't so absurd.
To me, it was normal.
I knew women who were lawyers. Bankers. Politicians. My own doctor was a woman.
To be sure, women still faced challenges and discrimination in the workplace. And even 20 years later, they still do.
But at its core, the riddle is about how a family can work. And that had changed. Long-overdue progress had rendered the big, sexist assumption that underpinned the whole thing moot.
A very hard riddle was suddenly not a riddle at all.
I never forgot it.
Now, I'm 30 — almost as old as my dad was he first told me that riddle.
My dad at 30 (left) and me at 30. Photos by Eric March/Upworthy and Mary March, used with permission.
I don't have kids, but I mentor a child through a volunteer program.
Once a week, we get together and hang out for an hour. We play ping pong, do science experiments, and write songs. Neither of us like to go outside.
It's a good match.
One day, we decided to try to stump each other with riddles.
He rattled off about five or six.
I could only remember one: The one about the man, his son, and the surgeon.
Photo via iStock.
I thought it would be silly to tell it.
I was sure that, if it was easy in 1993, it would be even easier in 2014. Kind of ridiculous, even.
But a part of me was curious.
It had been 21 years — almost as long as it had been between when my dad first heard the riddle and when he shared it with me.
Maybe it wouldn't be so easy.
Maybe I was missing something obvious, making my own flawed assumptions about how a family could work.
Maybe the world had changed in ways that would be second nature to a 13-year-old but not to me.
So I began:
"A man and his son are driving in their car, when they are hit by a tractor-trailer. The father dies instantly. The son is badly injured and is rushed to the hospital by paramedics. As he is being wheeled into the operating room, the surgeon takes one look at the boy and says:
'I can't operate on him. He's my son.'
How is that possible?!"
Without missing a beat, he answered: "it's his other dad"
Photo via iStock.
Times change. Progress isn't perfect. But no matter what shape a family takes, at the end of the day, #LoveWins.
This article was written by Eric March and originally appeared on 06.21.16
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."