A group of us from the Douglas Park Community School Society were cooking hot dogs at the City’s Try-it Triathlon on the weekend. The event is exciting, well organized and carried off by some amazing volunteers. But when you look at the energy being expended by the participants, the safest place for an older crowd like us was behind the tables serving hot dogs and pop.
I approached a couple of young mothers I know who were waiting for their kids at the finish line.
“What time do you two go out on the course?” I asked.
They both looked at me with some disdain and one of them smiled sweetly and said, “When you are raising young children, every day is a marathon. You should write an article about that.”
There was very little humour in her voice, so I was cautious in my reply.
The other lady spoke up and said, “No, if you want a story idea, write about how useless husbands are in the child-raising department. Our son is out there on the course today in shoes that are too big for him because his father took him shoe shopping yesterday. This morning, when we went to put them on, I noticed they were too big and I couldn’t believe they didn’t try them on.”
I know the father in question, so I spoke to him later and he replied. “We were in the shoe section and I asked him what size his shoes were. He said four so we bought four. I figured he would know what size his shoes were.”
Fathers make assumptions, maybe not always the correct ones, but if our son knows his phone number and his address we are going to assume he knows his shoe size.
But there are some rules of life that young mothers have to learn. When shopping for kids, mothers are responsible for shoes, socks, underwear, pants and shirts. Fathers are responsible for sporting equipment.
A good example comes from my Little League coaching days. One of my T-ball players showed up with a new glove, but I noticed he took it off to throw the ball. I figured out he was wearing the wrong glove. I explained to his Mom that he needed a glove for his left hand.
“What do you mean? I was in the sporting goods store and there were right-handed gloves and left-handed gloves, and he is right- handed.”
Some of those conversations can be quite challenging.
The bride buys dresses, flowers, caterers, the hall and the music. The groom rents a tux and shows up. Men buy cars and trucks and women choose paint and carpeting. Women buy kitchen cabinets and appliances, men buy beer.
Women don’t feel comfortable buying a family vehicle because of a lack of negotiating experience, difficulty understanding auto jargon, or maybe a feeling that the dealership staff isn’t taking her seriously. Exactly the same reasons you don’t see men in lingerie shops.
There are basic laws of society and when they are violated, paint and carpets clash, and kids show up at sporting events in the wrong size shoes.
The young man finished his triathlon without stumbling or falling. The medal around his neck and the grin on his face told us the day was worth it. By the time school starts in September those shoes will be too small anyway. At least that’s what McGregor says.
