Failure to Communicate

After several posts about serious stuff, I thought I would lighten things up a little.  Let me start by saying that I have three of the greatest children God ever gave anyone.  My oldest is the builder of the family, the middle the teacher, and my daughter – well she is brilliant, beautiful and charismatic so I am not sure what she will do yet.  My daughter K, has been proposed to at least 5 times that I know of and she just completed the first grade.

Well, when K was 4 years old, I had to go to an appointment so I asked my office manager, M, to watch her.  We watched her together several times before when her mother needed us to so I didn’t think anything of it.  I asked M to take her to lunch and when I returned I found M with a perplexed look on his face.  He came into my office to tell me about his conversation with K while they rode back from lunch.  It went something like this.

K – M, my mom has a bigger house than you doesn’t she?

M – Yes
K – M, my mom has a bigger house than you.
K – M, my mom has a bigger house than you.

K – M, my dad has a nicer truck than you doesn’t he?

M – Yes
K – M, my dad has a nicer truck than you.
K – M, my dad has a nicer truck than you.

This isn’t exactly how this went but you get the point.  Needless to say, I was furious.

Let me digress for a minute to say, don’t let anyone judge you (and you shouldn’t judge anyone) based on what you wear, where you live, or what you drive.  You are important because you are you.  You are a very special creation and it is wrong to judge anyone based on how much money they have, how smart they are, or the color of their skin.  All these things are just the wrapping paper on the Box, they don’t have anything to do with what is inside the Box and that is the important stuff.

Back to the story – When this happened, K was in another office watching a video.  I stormed in that room and slammed the door so hard the walls shook.  As my face contorted into that angry face that parents get right before they are going to discipline their children, I was faced with a small problem.  What if K didn’t understand what she did was wrong?  Right then and there, I decided I was going to chew her out but not spank her.  So I spent about 5 minutes letting her know how wrong that type of behavior was and how it very possibly hurt M’s feelings.  My parting statement was, “I’ll tell you one thing young lady, you are going to apologize to M before we leave her today.  Do you understand me?”

Just then, she had the most serene look on her face.  That pitiful one with the puppy dog eyes that says I am so sorry for screwing up.  She looked as beautiful and as sweet as I have ever seen her and she said, “Yes sir!”  She had made a mistake and she was going to fix it.

A little time passes and she comes into my office to talk.  Within a few minutes, M walks in behind her to talk about business and I am still fuming.

“K, do you have something to say to M?” I ask with anger in my voice.

Again through those innocent, sweet little blue eyes, my beautiful, caring, blond headed little angel looks up and says to me, “Yes sir!”  Then she turns to M with that look in her eyes.  It is so innocent, so caring and so pure.  She has seen the error of her ways and is going to make things right and she very softly says,

“M, I’m sorry you have a small house.”

That’s the Opinion of the Minion