Other People's Kids

Lunch With "Josie"

The Wife really had to jump through a few hoops to get child care arrangements set up so she could be out of town for a few days. Today was my turn to cover the bases...since "Josie" was done with school but her friend and her dad weren't out of work for an hour, I got to have another lunch with Our Little Darling.

I began our date with what I considered to be a witty conversational gambit: "so, you catch any carp yet today?" Heh. After I rubbed the owie out of my shoulder, I shifted the car into gear and drove to the cafe, where we proceeded to eat a normal, everyday lunch. Or it would have been an everyday, normal lunch if "Josie" hadn't been vibrating at a tone of about high "C" because of the six (!) "energy drinks" she had imbibed this morning.

I'm glad I wasn't her teacher. Holy cripes. She started talking as we pulled out of work and I don't think she took a breath until we got to the cafe.

I also got a kick out of the reactions of the ladies having lunch when we got there. She seemed only to know one of them, and all of them gave me what I took to be a speculative look: "what's "Josie" doing with this man, and should we inform her mother about it?" I love that kind of thing. People just love to talk, don't they? Especially in small towns. I'm guessing half of that little burg knows now that we ate there today.

Anyway, we ate, we chatted, she wanted to come home tonight and keep me company since I had mentioned I was bored last night, I thanked her for the offer but declined with a nod to the carefully-listening hens at the next table, we chatted some more, finished and left. It was fun, and I plan on doing that with her semi-regularly.

If I haven't mentioned it before, "Josie" was born to be a heart breaker. To quote an old Swedish band, "She's Got the Look". She's really cute, she's really fun, and boys can't seem to help themselves when she bats her eyes at them. It's like hypnosis. She's also hypersexualized and can't understand it when we tell her that she'll be much more attractive if she dresses with a little class instead of a (very) little material.

But the problem is, she knows she's cute, she knows she can have pretty much any boyfriend she wants, and she doesn't seem to care whether she hurts them. That bugs me. I got hurt a lot when I was younger, and sometimes that pain can follow you like a ghost for a long time.

Ask The Wife. She was one of the ones that unintentionally hurt me when I was younger (probably more my fault than hers, it's a long story), and while the sting is gone from that for obvious reasons, I haven't forgotten what it feels like. Not all guys are probably as sensitive as me about things like that...but some are. And they don't forget, either, I'll bet.

I've been trying to think of not-too-painful ways to clue her in on what she might do to some poor boy who falls for her. It's sort of a case of "watch where you point that, girl." And I'm trying to look out for the boys that might get steamrolled in the next few years....I know there'll be a few, but I hope to reduce the number and severity if possible.

Ideas will be most gratefully received.

posted by Dan @ 5:16 PM