As this exchange demonstrates, kids understand a lot more and a lot less than we might expect. We often assume our children understand more then they do, and then we're surprised when their innocence leaves us red-faced. The dog was in the backseat of the station wagon. But we hadn't asked for permission to bring along our cat, who was hidden in her carrier. We pulled up to our realtor's office and he came out to the car to hand over the keys.
Children are egocentric.
At no time do tactless remarks seem as epidemic as they do around gift-getting time. When my son Scott turned five, a family friend brought him a little book. That's the best you could do. Stern observes that similar situations are so common they are routinely brought up in parenting groups. Of course Grandma was sitting right there stricken.