Your kids aren't listening, but they're watching...so practice what you preach.

Went out to lunch with my dad (my son's "Poppa") today. There's a nice little sportsbar with a decent menu super-close to my work, so we headed there. It's a "seat yourself" type place, so we grabbed a table in the corner.

Then we sat there for a while. We had arrived around a quarter after noon, so the place was fairly full by the time we got there and, apparently, no one had noticed us come in. Once we reached this realization, my dad and I promptly began to argue about who should go alert the bartender to our presence.

Dad: She'll think I'm a creepy old guy hitting on her. Go tell her we're here.

Me: But...I don't wanna.

Dad: You need to be more assertive. They're here to wait on us. We're the customers. In fact-

Me: Okay, fine. I'm going.

I told the bartender where we were sitting, and she came right over to take our drink orders. The service remained okay up until a little while after our food had arrived. Being the middle of the lunch rush, the place was pretty full, and my dad's glass sat empty for a while awaiting a refill. Since our waitress looked to have her hands pretty full, the manager walked over and offered to grab a refill for us. Sure, that'd be awesome. Right after he walked away from our table, the waitress came over with refills.

Dad: Oh no. He's coming back over here with a refill. He's going to have wasted a trip and be mad. Here, help me hide this drink.

Me: I thought you said we were the customers and they were here to wait on-

Dad: Let's put the napkin holder in front of it.

So, what lesson do you think I learned from my dad today? To be assertive? Or to pretend you're out of beverage so a server doesn't think you put them out?

Not that I'm any better. I'm constantly telling my son not to climb on things because it's not safe, but I'll also climb on top of the counters to get something off the refrigerator.

But then, isn't that one of the perks of having kids...mild hypocrisy?