Skip to main content

The Parent Magnet

In general, I've always gotten along well with people older than me. I don't quite know why, but I suspect it has something to do with my old school attitude. We probably have very similar outlooks on life, so it makes sense that I'd get along with older generations.

Recently, though, I've noticed that other people's parents seem to have a particular affinity for yours truly. For example, I met my future brother-in-law's parents a couple of weeks ago. The two families got together for a meal as a means of introducing everyone to each other. Now, I've heard a little bit about them, and they'd obviously heard a little bit about us. But even given that, the dad spent something like half of the meal talking to me about school, work, and what I do for fun. Sure, I like to blab, but even when I would divert the conversation to other people, we'd end up back where we started. At the end of the day, it wasn't that big a deal, so I just left thinking we had a lot in common.

For those of you thinking that one example does not a pattern make, I've got more. The second example comes from my sister-in-law, who just so happens to want to be included in my writing a little more often. I was talking to her the other day, and I mentioned that I was thinking of visiting her and my brother. Apparently, when her father heard that I might be visiting his daughter, he said something to the effect of, "oh, then I'm coming over to see you guys." I've barely met her dad, and I think he's a nice enough guy. In his case, though, it's not like we have a shared profession or common experiences to fall back on. But there it was, I was attracting parents to the area by suggesting I might be around.

Heck, I've even had the parent of an ex-girlfriend specifically ask for me to act as a tutor. Sure, that one might be a little bit of a special case, but I highly doubt that the lady thought poorly of me if she was asking for my help. Funnily enough, the most amusing example of my parent magnet-ing also comes from a (different) ex-girlfriend's mom. The ex was talking to one of her friends right when we first started going out, and the following exchange happened:

Mild Ex: "So, I started seeing someone"
The Friend: *squeals in delight* (go ahead, guess the gender of the friend) "So, what's he like?"
Mild Ex: "Well, he's half Chinese and half brown"
The Friend: "I guess this means your mom will half like him"

In the end, the mom did like me a bit, so I think the friend was right.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about all of this. I'm all for making a good impression, but this feels like one of those talents that acts as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I think this proves I can have mature conversations when I choose. On the other hand, I think this means that I also exhibit all of the mannerisms that come with getting old (the word "curmudgeon" comes to mind).

I choose to think positively about this, though. All of this means that I could potentially draw up a small army of middle-aged Americans to help do my bidding. World domination, here I come.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Trip (Day 3)

By the third day of the trip, I was tired enough from the previous day's adventures/subway rides that I felt like sleeping in. And sleep in I did. I think I woke up at something like 11:30 or noon. Of course, that meant that a later start to the day, which started the vicious cycle all over again. By the time we rolled into Manhattan, it was about two in the afternoon. I had tentatively set aside Sunday to see something on Broadway, so we headed over to the tkts booth for discount tickets. There were actually various 3PM options, and after mulling our options, we figured it'd be a good idea to catch one of those. We settled on The Toxic Avenger , which was actually an off-Broadway option. However, we hadn't eaten yet, and the show started about 15 minutes after we got our tickets. Enter the food carts. There happened to be one right outside the theater, and the guy charged a little bit of a premium for the convenience. Still, I was hungry, and I had yet to try...
1 comment
Read more

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where Do I Go?

As the days of COVID-19 are dragging on, we are having to make more adjustments to our usual routines. Some of these changes are so mundane that I haven't mentioned them at all in this blog, while others have lead to some pretty funny anecdotes . That's probably par for the course, since you wouldn't expect a global pandemic to be all giggles. As it turns out, however, not all of the anecdotes happen to us directly. Having to socially distance and remotely do things has actually led to at least one goofy episode that we found out from afar. You see, it was our niece's birthday recently, but we couldn't visit her because of the aforementioned social distancing. So, we figured we'd ship her a present and call her on her birthday. We couldn't be there in person, but we could still wish her well and try to make her feel special on her birthday. Given that shipping times have been erratic the last few months, we ordered the present with plenty of time, and it arr...
Post a Comment
Read more