The “When I Was Your Age” Lecture . . . with a Twist

Right Message, Wrong Messenger

“Pick you up from school?!?  When I was your age, nobody picked me up from school.  I had to take two city buses, wait in the cold for a transfer, and sit in traffic for an hour to get home from school.”

–Overheard at the Kaplan kitchen table around 7:30 a.m. on a recent school day.

Undercutting the stern message above:  the speaker wasn’t me or my wife, lecturing one of our kids.

Instead, it was son #1 — now almost 18 years old — rebuking son #2 (not quite 15), for having the temerity to ask him for an after-school ride home.

Which means that “when I was your age” wasn’t millennia ago, but as recently as last year, when son #1 was still car-less.

Inconvenient fact #2:  I remember literally dozens of times when my wife or I drove said son to/from school, especially when he had to be there early or stay late.

That hassle came to an abrupt halt last year, with the addition of a (very) used car to the Kaplan household.

Reminded of those facts, son #1 picked up his brother . . .  🙂



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