Saturday, June 10, 2006

Tears and Idiots

A recent thread over at Bowden’s blog (I should say ONE of his blogs, the other is here) reminded me of the following event from a few weeks ago before school let out. Scooter (10) was sniping at her sister a lot and finally I told her (in a gentle, fatherly way) to knock it off.

She responded by bursting immediately into tears.

(I then paused a few seconds to try to take it in. I never know how to respond initially to female tears. I have encountered them in numerous situations over the years and in various relationships (friends, daughters, wives, wife, sisters-in-law, co-workers) but I always have the same initial thought: What did I do to cause this?)

So I asked her “What did I do to cause this?”

She replied “You just don’t understand.”

...

Well, she had me there.

After more prodding she continued “A boy called me fat at school today.” My response was immediate and unthinking:

“What idiot called you that?” I snapped.

Through her tears she scolded me. (weep, weep) “Daddy, we don’t call people idiots.” (weep, weep).

"Well, at times we make exceptions."

The conversation degenerated from there.

3 comments:

PoMonkey said...

I assume I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but this is probably just the first of MANY moments where your daughter(s) burst into tears and say "You just don't understand!". May I be the first to officially welcome you to the fatherhood of female adolescents.

Bowden McElroy said...

Pausing a moment in the face of tears is ALWAYS a good plan.

(Thanks for the link.)

Taran said...

Bobby,

This story illustrates 2 things: first, how sweet natured Scooter is (something she inherited completely from her mother, after 19 years, still the person with the sweetest personality I have ever encountered) and second, how generally ill equipped I so often feel in dealing with the girls.

Pomonkey,

Why does your comment cause me to shiver?