The four-year-old sat at the picnic table with her grandparents, ready to have lunch. Her brother was playing with the grandparent’s dog.
“Don’t take him into the water! He doesn’t like water!” the grandpa cautioned as his grandson continued to pull on the dog’s leash, intent on dragging the dog into the water.
Meanwhile the gramma was unloading food from the take out paper bag and handed a hamburger to her granddaughter.
“I want a hotdog!” the girl pouted.
Her grandpa gently reminded her that she had told him to order her a hamburger. In the background, the dog was busy digging his heels into the sand as the boy grandchild continued pulling him towards the water.
The little girl peeked inside the hamburger bun and gasped, “You put yellow stuff on it! I don’t like yellow stuff!”
“It’s OK; we can fix that,” the grampa quickly piped up. He began scraping off the mustard and hiding any traces of it with additional ketchup. No doubt, he was doing his best to avoid a temper tantrum – hers, not his. After he was done, he cautiously returned the hamburger to its owner and breathed a sigh of relief when the pre-schooler took a bite, chewed and swallowed.
Minutes later the girl scampered off to play with her brother. The grampa rolled his eyes, and muttered to his wife, “I thought it was over after the terrible two’s.”
In case you’re wondering – pre-schoolers aren’t the only people who complain about their take out food … A fast food attendant was approached by a distraught, middle- aged customer.
“You gave me the wrong burger!” the customer complained. “I ordered a double burger and you gave me a single patty burger. You need to give me a double burger.”
The employee calmly offered assurance to the customer saying, “Sir, you may return your order and we will gladly replace it with the correct order.”
The customer grunted in response and replied, “Well I was hungry so I already ate the burger!”
If you can relate to that particular incident, you may also find this series of text mes- sages vaguely familiar.
Mom: Text number 1: Don’t forget to unload the dishwasher. No response from the teenaged daughter. Text number 2: Did you finish your homework? No response. Text number 3: We have to go to your grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving. You guessed right; there was still no response. Text number 4: Dad and I talked, we are going to buy you a car next month.
Finally a text reply from the 16-year-old: “You are? Oh My God, thank you!”
Text from her mom: “No. We’re not. I just wanted to make sure you were getting my texts.”
Teenager: “That was cruel!”
And pre-schoolers, teens and baby boomers aren’t the only people who occasionally complain … A home care attendant came to pay a visit to a senior couple to do some house cleaning and take care of any of the seniors’ personal needs. The home care worker left after having completed all the household chores and efficiently taken care
of the couple’s personal needs. After the door closed behind her, the senior lady said, “I don’t know why she has to ask me so many questions. And why does she always snoop around in every room in the house? Does she have to be so nosey?”
So you see it doesn’t matter what age you are, it doesn’t take any effort to find some- thing to complain about. Farmers and gardeners are well aware of the effort it takes to harvest their crops and garden produce, and when life hands you yucky yellow stuff on your burger, it can take effort to harvest your gratitude.
Read more by Joan on her page kindersleysocial.ca/webarchive/joan
