Re: Fri. 8/5 'Will it Float?' Item Prediction
- From: Katycren@xxxxxxx
- Date: 5 Aug 2005 18:58:06 -0700
Brady wrote:
> Earlier this evening, I went into my usual Friday trance in an unusual location
> -- a neighborhood drugstore. Allow me to explain.
>
> The drugstore at which pharmacist Liz works is, unfortunately, going out of
> business. So I had to find a new place to purchase my pharmaceuticals. Luckily,
> I found a quaint little location with a friendly, helpful staff. While my new
> pharmacist, Missy, was filling my prescription, I made smalltalk with 'pharmacy
> tech' Nicole.
>
> While waiting, I had been flipping through a 'healthy living'-type mini-tabloid,
> published by either the drugstore chain or, perhaps, a pharmaceutical company.
> (Or as I collectively refer to pharmaceutical companies: 'big drug.') There was
> a feature in the magazine on 'how to become closer' -- and stay close (!) --
> with your child. It featured a numbered list of 'great ways' to 'connect' with
> your children. One of the hints: 'Don't base your love for your child on his/her
> appearance.' I thought that was a rather odd thing to say in a magazine. So I
> turned the magazine around and slid it across the counter, pointing to the
> parenting tip in question. I said to pharmacy tech Nicole, "I think this is
> sound advice. I think this is a very wise parenting tip."
>
> "Yes," replied pharmacy tech Nicole, not a hint of irony or facetiousness in her
> voice. "That *is* good advice."
>
> Now I'm thinking: Am I the only one who finds it strange that they would feel
> the need to include such advice in a magazine? Isn't it like saying, 'Don't put
> motor oil in little Jimmy's baby bottle?'
>
> So then I said, "I mean, do you think there are any parents out there who *do*
> base love for their children on how the kids look?"
>
> Pharmacy tech Nicole: "I don't know."
>
> So *now* I'm thinking, 'You don't know? How can you not *know*? And even if you
> *don't* know, don't you find it the least bit ironic or troublesome that we've
> arrived at a point in society in which that particular piece of parenting advice
> might be prudent?'
Brady, Brady, Brady. How could Nicole possibly know the answer to your
question? I mean, out of *all* the parents in the world, there could be
at least *one* who bases love for his/her child on the poor kid's
looks. No one could answer that.
But it's a provocative thought. It might not be as simple an issue as
whether a child is attractive or butt-ugly, as Tom said. Suppose a man
doesn't love his wife any more and wishes he could leave her, but feels
as if he is duty-bound to stay for the sake of the children. So his
little daughter who looks JUST LIKE her mother, giggles innocently with
the same big brown eyes and dimpled grin as his wife -- the woman who
told him the night before what a pathetic loser he is -- and
unconsciously stirs the father's pent-up feelings of bitterness and
resentment, so he tends to love that child less. At least that's the
way my older sister explained it to me...
Kate
.
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