Sort Of Cool Moment

[alantig]

So the wife and I go out for date night tonight instead of our usual Friday because she worked at home today. Had to drop off the paperwork for her handicap placard, stop at Sam's Club for some stuff for our daughter, and my wife decided she was in the mood for Applebee's tonight. Haven't been there in a long time.

They take us to a table that's back by the wall where they display pictures of the local teams - school teams, not pro. I saw a picture from a girls' soccer game and thought it was too bad they didn't do that back when my son was in high school. I told my wife I was going to wash my hands and stopped dead in my tracks. There was a picture of a boys game - from the year my son was the starting goalie (he got screwed in his senior year when the coach was more interested in appeasing his "star" by playing his friend in goal instead - all bias aside, my son was the better keeper, and they finished second in their section when they should have won, but that's all another story). My son wasn't the focus of the picture, but was clearly visible.

I grabbed my iPhone, snapped a picture of the picture and sent it to him.

Why "sort of cool"? No response from the boy. So I sent him another text and said, "No response?" He said, "You sent me a picture of that when you were there before." I did? I have zero recollection of it - same as my wife. He later qualified it and said, "You sent me something about a soccer picture." There was another picture of a teammate of his that was in a place more likely to be seen, so I think that might have been it.

So: mom, dad - cool. Son - eh.

 

[László]

He said, "You sent me a picture of that when you were there before." I did? I have zero recollection of it - same as my wife.

Welcome to the wonderful world of "What could be more annoying to an offspring than an aging parent (until the offspring has a child, then the offspring starts to get it)?"

I made the gigantic (and apparently annoying) mistake of sending my daughter a picture of my son playing with 30 Seconds to Mars that I found on Instagram.

"You don't have to keep sending this stuff. We ALL have Instagram, you know."

"But I didn't know that you had Instagram or even saw the picture if you did have it."

Cue Rolling Eyes. And my daughter has large eyes. So when they roll, basically, the earth wobbles ever so slightly off its axis, and a natural disaster occurs in some part of the world.

I am welcome in my daughter's house, however, provided I obey every single rule, and there are many, many rules. I don't know most of the rules, and frankly, I don't want to know them, because she visits me and doesn't follow my rules. It's a natural state of generational skirmishes.

In any case, you are no longer in a position to EVER be cool to your kids after they are about 8, until your kids have children, and you will be cool with their children, for a while anyway.

 

[jfb]

Plainly put I've been a jerk to my parents a few times over this type of stuff. It makes me cringe to think of how foolish I must have looked and worse yet how they felt. Grace is a tough lesson.

 

[JustRob]

Alan - LOL'd. And I think it's pretty cool.

Les - I'm lost. What's "Instagram"?

 

[László]

Alan - LOL'd. And I think it's pretty cool.

Les - I'm lost. What's "Instagram"?

Ha!

 

[vchizzle]

Plainly put I've been a jerk to my parents a few times over this type of stuff. It makes me cringe to think of how foolish I must have looked and worse yet how they felt. Grace is a tough lesson.

Yes, I feel bad about how much of a jackass to parents(and that's putting it lightly) I was when I was younger. I'm reminded of it daily and feel bad. Still apologize to my mom often. Karma can be a real b!tch :laugh:

 

[alantig]

Oh, I don't think my son was being a jerk. Just totally nonplussed by it all. He swears we told him about the picture - I don't remember ever seeing it.

On the other side of the spectrum, today we went to WVU to see my daughter perform at the football game (color guard). She's thrilled because she's in the pregame video (senior year). Dinner after, we took her friend with us, popped back to the apartment for a bit. She gave me a shot glass she picked up for me in St. Louis - cool glass with the arch on it. (I'd meant to ask her to get me one, but I got the timing confused and thought they were past St. Louis, but they were still there.) All in all a routine visit. Get home, sitting here reading the paper and my cell phone goes off - it's her. "Figured I should give you a call and give credit where it's due." As it turns out, they'd gone out to run a couple errands. While her boyfriend and another guy ran into the store, she and another guy sat in her car listening to the radio. Car wouldn't start - battery either dead or dejuiced enough. But mean old dad, who'd gone over what little car maintenance he knew with her, had made her take an emergency battery pack with her. Sure enough, car started right up and ran fine the rest of the night. So we're on surveillance with the battery for a few days.

Beats the hell out of her getting me out of bed to change a tire at 1:30 AM. (That was a summer project we did!)