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As usual, I'm one of the oldest people(if not THE oldest) in my classes. I'm totally cool with that. Until....I hear stupid conversations or have to question how men/ women think. I know you all are thinking, what in the HELL does this have to do with Fatherhood Friday. I'll get to that. I promise.
In history class I talk with only two people in a classroom of about 90 students. These two people are cool: One is twenty, the other almost thirty. It's biology that I start to wish that there were more older people. The likelihood of that ever happening is not very likely considering it's a general ed course.
Anyways, on Tuesday, one of the people from my lab group(there are six of us) asked another if she got her car. Apparently, she was supposed to have gotten it last week. Turns out that she had wrecked her car and was waiting on the insurance money to get it, but her car had all these upgrades the insurance didn't account for (do they ever?). She's saying how her mom is waiting to just get their cars together: Hers, a Volvo, her mom's, a Mercedes (or was it a BMW not that makes a difference). Of course the young girls were shocked by the types of cars and probably wished they were her. I don't know. Then she talked about how she and her mom share clothes, because they are the same size (that's annoying enough right there). Her mom cares about what types of clothes she wears, car she drives, etc., and the girl said that apparently that's where she got her desire for the same. Of course I had to put my two cents in ever so gently.
I mentioned that even when I was young I never had the desire for name brand stuff, fancy car, etc. Even now I am still like that. I told the group that my dream car was a minivan, at which they laughed, and that I got. I said that as long as I'm not cramped and it gets me where I want to go, it's all good. One girl said she would just be glad to have a car.
So today in lab she's talking to the other girl that sits across from her in our group. They get onto the subject of tires. She states that her mom gets her tires changed every six months. I think I said something about that being a waste of money. She said something to the affect about it having special tread. I immediately thought, 'Your mom has been fed some total bullshit, and she's eating it all up with a spoon.'
I'm guessing that the father is not around, because she never mentions him. If he is, why isn't he putting a stop to this madness? It's no secret that mechanics, or whatever profession most women don't know about, can totally tell women that this or that needs to be fixed, and they're going to believe it because we don't know the difference. There are some women that that doesn't happen to, but for the majority we know this is true.
This is one area that I think guys are better at handling. I'm grateful that my husband shares his knowledge about the do's/don'ts of car care and maintenance. I'm also grateful to my dad sharing his knowledge as well even though it's somewhat limited. While it's a fact that I can't change my own tires (which I have never tried, so who knows?), change the oil, etc., I feel comforted by the fact that I know how to check fluid levels, fill them if I have to, I can tell a spark plug from a carburetor, and a few other things. I never would have known how to do these things if not for dads and husbands.
