Keeping Up with the Random Parents in the Waiting Room

I took Cubby to the pediatrician again yesterday for his one-year vaccinations, since he was finally ABSOLUTELY AND WITHOUT A DOUBT one year old. We waited for about fifteen minutes in the waiting room, playing with the grimy toys and staring at the other people who came in.

Okay, only Cubby stared. I have better manners than that.

One of the other children who came in while we were there was a little girl who, I learned from her parents, was named Amber and also turned one last week. I was talking with the parents, as parents of children do when thrown together, mostly providing one-word responses as mom talked away a mile a minute with occasional contributions from dad across the room.

I said something to Amber about her pretty shirt, her mother said it was a gift at her birthday party last week . . . You know, the sort of idle, meaningless conversation complete strangers engage in. And then dad yells out from across the room, "We just spent four thousand dollars on her for Christmas, and then another thousand for her birthday."

Uh.

I mean, how does one respond to that? I think I said, "Wow." That seemed safe. It was not a "Wow, that's great," sort of wow. More of a "Wow. That might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," kind of wow. Because frankly, I think spending four thousand dollars on anything other than, say, life-saving surgery or a car is pretty stupid.

ANYWAY.

After some more explanations from dad about the multitudes of toys and clothes Amber got for her birthday, the conversation turned, at some point, to dogs. Amber, apparently, loves dogs. She particularly likes their big dog. I asked what kind of dog it is, mom replied it's a golden retriever . . . and then here comes dad again from across the room, "How much did your dad spend on that dog, honey? A thousand dollars?"

Is there some kind of social disorder that causes people to compulsively blurt out the price of everything? Because that guy had it.

The oddest thing was that this couple was maybe twenty years old, and as misleading as appearances may be, I would have bet money that neither of them had what you might call high-powered jobs. But even if they DID, four thousand dollars? For Christmas for a one-year-old child who has no idea what's going on and won't even remember?

Well. It takes all kinds, I guess. I'm sure Amber will appreciate her parents' generosity after the fact. And even if she doesn't remember, it doesn't matter--her dad will tell her all about it.