Phone-y

My new job is interesting. I deal with even more university parents than I used to. Most of them are pretty even and sane, but today I was nearly drowned by a wave of overbearing craziness.

First of all, when I leave a message on an answering machine for someone's child, it's almost always the parent who calls back. Now a lot of these kids are on their senior trips. But I hear a lot of them in the background, trying to talk over their parents. "Ask them this... ask them that..." while the mother (and for some reason it's always the mother) attempts to translate.

The most heartbreaking and annoying occurrence was a woman who started almost every sentence with "frankly." Frankly, this is a pet peeve of mine. "Frankly, finding any information out is like pulling teeth. Frankly, as long as y'all get that money it seems like we don't matter. I'm calling for my son about his room assignment... frankly I don't trust him to take care of it." Well, thank God. Another man's testicles bite the dust. His destiny is to marry a girl who will thoroughly emasculate him and grant him no power in the relationship.

At least it's a warning of things to come. I'm learning more and more that having children makes you insane. Hopefully I can prepare and learn to be okay with giving my children their independence. To be fair, that boy might have been completely irresponsible, and she, as the one paying the bill, wanted to be absolutely sure. But my GOD, her tone. The way she shut her son up in the background... it was just... well, it was a sad day for boys who hope to one day become men.