Stacey and I went to lunch on Saturday after hitting up Starbuck's. I admit that I am pretty far removed from having lunch with my nine-year-old son. And I was never the non-custodial father taking his nine-year-old for the weekend. And my kids got to where they are by rather circuitous routes. So, I don't know about me giving some guy advice about child-rearing; but there was a pretty strange conversation going on behind me at A & J's Grill, which was a pretty good idea for lunch for the dad and his son. The menu is varied, with sandwiches and pizza, something for a nine-year-old and his father.
The conversation seemed to be one-sided, although the nine-year-old had a nice, quiet restaurant voice, in contrast to his father, who obviously, by how loud he was talking, wanted everyone in the place to know just how good a father he really could be. Needless to say, and I really make no judgments here about the choice of topics, but I now know more about the return policy of Best Buy than I really care to know, whether I have a receipt, paid cash and have a receipt, paid by credit card and have a receipt, don't have a receipt and paid in cash, or don't have a receipt and paid by credit card. And I must point out that the kid was a very good listener. He seemed to understand the whole deal, since he did not have one question for his father. I, on the other hand, wanted to ask about debit cards and whether they are treated like a credit card or cash or some strange hybrid, but I didn't want to interfere with a father's rather limited time with his son.
Posted by Bill at August 22, 2004 07:56 PM