Meet the Parents 2
The first time I met Paul's parents, they hugged me and treated me like family. His mother sat me down next to her on the couch and showed me family photo albums. They even had a photo of Paul and me on the end table. They made me feel like family and I'd only been dating their son for a couple of months.
Paul's father turned 84 at the end of March and Paul wanted to take his parents, his kids and me out to dinner to celebrate his father's birthday. Saturday night I have my 12-year-old son, "PacMan" at my house. (My ex and I share custody.) So PacMan got to meet his mother's boyfriend's parents! There's probably fodder for a cheezy comedy in there somewhere.
I worried about how PacMan would deal with it. Not only might he feel a bit awkward, but there would be a lot of driving - long, boring, "are-we-there-yet?" driving involved. It's an hour to Paul's house. Then another 15 minutes over to Paul's parent's house. Then 45 minutes to their favorite restaraunt, where we had nearly an hour wait for a table! (No, they don't take reservations.) I intended to take my car. I knew Paul would drive his parents, who don't drive at night, and didn't want PacMan to feel uncomfortable on a long drive with people he didn't know. But somehow, it didn't work out that way and we left Paul's parent's house with PacMan in the backseat, sandwiched between Paul's parents.
They tried to make small talk. Eventually Paul's mother asked PacMan if he liked school. "Not really," he answered. Mrs. P replied, "I didn't either. I just went because I had to. I had some good teachers, but I had some really crabby ones too." PacMan's face perked up. A grown-up was complaining about crabby teachers! "Me too!" he said. Mrs. P continued, "They'd always compare me to my sister, who got straight A's. They'd tell me I was nothing like her. That was mean." PacMan was amazed. A grown-up was saying that teachers could be "mean"!
I think PacMan has found a new hero in Paul's mother. She is the one grown-up in his life who seems to honestly relate to his negative feelings about school and his teachers. She didn't tell him to make the best of it or that students should respect their teachers or any of the stuff he usually hears. She said that some teachers were "mean".
He didn't like waiting an hour at the restaurant for a table, but he didn't mind the long car ride one bit!
posted by WordWhiz at 4/02/2006
8 Comments:
That story made me smile. That Mrs. P, she's alright.
Well April's here my friend. The countdown is on. Vegas Baby!
10:26 PM
Go Mrs. P! I actually got in trouble for saying something similar to one of my nieces. She complained to me that she hated math class. I agreed that math class sucked, and the only reason I took math was that I had to do so to graduate. She was thrilled that somebody finally said in our family that math sucked (Note: her father/my brother was a chemical engineer; my other brother is a petroleum engineer; my sister was an electrical engineer; my dad was an orthodontist; and my mom was a math major. Go me for having the master's in English!). My brother REAMED me later on. "Oh, she doesn't need to be told that, she has to learn to like it, you've just given her a thumbs up to hate it" blah blah blah. I still am confused on what I did wrong. We aren't allowed to NOT like what we HAVE to do? I didn't see that one in the fine print.
10:31 PM
Mrs P is one smart lady WW, winning over a 12 YO in the space of a trip to the resturant.
9:51 AM
Nice one, Whizzer. Very nice indeed.
1:07 PM
Well she's right..some teachers ARE mean! My daughter has this bumper sticker that says "Mean people make little mean people." Heh..so true.
4:12 PM
some teachers just are mean...i know!
5:18 PM
My buddy from Virginia keeps telling me that grandparents often get along so well with their grandchildren because they share a common enemy. Now I know that enemy is mean teachers.
7:54 PM
Mrs. P is a very smart woman!!
11:06 PM
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