After a half hour of complaining about the piddly size of my Burgerville chicken strips – and even returning said chicken strips for a full refund of my $4.29, my 8 year old son kindly stated to me that it wasn’t a big deal, or wasn’t the end of the world, and to move on. He tried to minimize my problem like I would his.
And he’s wrong, damn it.
Sure, I minimize his problems all the time: “Toothless, its not a big deal that your brother stole your roll, go get another one.” Or when my youngest is throwing one of his many tantrums, I will say “Tiny stop crying, just because you don’t get to bring “sugar” to preschool, doesn’t mean that the world will end; get up or I’ll just leave you!” All of our kids have life shattering events happen to them on an hourly basis in which they think that they just can’t go any longer if they don’t get their way. Walk through a toy aisle and that sequence plays out 10 times in 5 minutes.
But when your kid minimizes your legitimate issues. That’s just unacceptable. I think its funny that I view this behavior as completely acceptable when I do it, but when my kids do it, it’s mortifying. As for the chicken strips I couldn’t let it go. After turning the car around to get my full refund and spending an additional 20 minutes about what’s wrong with the world, I tweeted a complaint out to Burgerville; filled out a customer survey online and was given a lackluster explanation as to why they tried to steal my money. $4.29 for three measly strips and no fries, ridiculous. Who doesn’t combine chicken strips with fries. I am an ugly American. Seriously.
See, I just can’t let it go. It really isn’t a big deal. I am off to enjoy some soccer. Thanks for taking the time to read this post as my many complaints are beginning to fall on deaf ears.
To read more about things that I make a big deal out of go to the page on my personal blog, Daddy”s Issues for some light reading.