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Parenting Adventures
A learning moment at home depot with my son.
Neither my son nor I like to shop.
“It’s just buying things. Or looking for things to buy,” he said as we came out of Lowe’s with nothing.
The sales guy at Lowe’s said, “I’ll have one of my associates come help you.” And we waited around, tried to entertain ourselves with silly pictures and then… we walked out. We had talked about getting another fern for my son’s room. And a trash can. But we left with nothing. And no associate ever showed up to help us. What is it about Home Depot that is so much better than Lowe’s? Or maybe it’s just me.
And then we went to Dick’s. My son’s laughing and saying, “It’s like an outdoor mall with curse words in the names of the stores,” was priceless.
We went in to price canoes. And we came out with nothing. We did have a nice time admiring the guns. “Because we’re boys, Dad. That’s why we like guns.”
I tried to get my son into a new t-shirt but he refused to even look at them.
As we were heading out the door, I stopped and said to him, “You know this was a great lesson. We didn’t buy anything, and that’s fine. We came to get some information. It does not mean we have to shop and buy stuff.”
“Exactly,” he said. “Now, I’m hungry!”
My newly learned motto: “Cause if you don’t spend the money, you can always spend it on something else!”
John McElhenney — let’s connect online
@jmacofearth & Facebook & LinkedIn & The Whole Parent
Get more articles from John’s single parenting blog The Whole Parent.
PLEASE READ: Letters to a Young Artist in the Digital Age from John Oakley McElhenney
