I hate picking up the phone only to hear a bunch of background noise while you wait for a person's voice who's trying to sell you something.
Today at lunch I got one of those calls. Since I eat right below the phone in the kitchen, it took but a brief mico-second to answer it and then I waited and waited. Finally, a voice came on and asked for me.
I told them I wasn't home and hung up.
That's generally how I deal with scams perpetrated by telemarketers...but how do you deal with scams perpetrated by your own family members -- namely my son Scott.
For instance, when he doesn't have any gasoline in his car, he's more than happy to hand me his car keys if I'm going to run an errand. He knows I have no tolerance for running out of gas -- never have -- so I'll be sure and fill his tank up.
But his latest scam was a doozy. He gave me $20 so I could buy his mother a diary for Christmas.
In one respect, I feel like I trained him well. He hates to shop as much or more than me so he pawned the task off to someone else -- unfortunately, me!
However, the 2009 diary, with tax, cost $40 so guess who picked up the extra $20?
What a scam.
I think I'm going to restrict the comments on this one to only parents...Beagle, Ttocs and DVD, no comments from you. The rest, however, I'd like to hear how your kids have scammed you.
This puts me in mind of a couple of things. One was a speaker who asked the audience, "How many of you have teenage children, how many had teenage children, and how many of you have been HAD by teenage children?"
The other one is about a guy I knew 20 years ago who told me his son's girlfriend asked him what she could buy for her boyfriend...she wanted to buy him something that he would never think of buying for himself.
The dad responded, "How about a tank of gas."
Anyway, here's how I handled Scott and the $40 diary episode. The diary is now going under the tree as a gift from Santa. Scott is buying something else for his mother.
You can't fool "Father" Nature. (Scene fades to lightning and thunderbolts)
Recipe - Aunt May's Famous Wheatcakes
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Now Playing - Forever Young by Alphaville RECIPE: MAY PARKER'S FAMOUS
WHEATCAKES Originally made by my pal Pete's Aunt May, these wheatcakes are
a great...
10 years ago
16 comments:
One question, "Does your wife read this blog?" If yes, than she now knows what Santa got her for Christmas. But since you have admitted to paying her to do her own shopping I would expect she probably has a general idea what she's getting anyay. I would love to tell you all the ways our children have scammed us, but I'm afraid I would probably overload your Blog's memory capacity.
Pat is the very best con I have ever seen.The best scam is one in which you know you've been"had" but can't think clear enough on the deal to figure it out.It starts out a small loan at the store."I'll pay you the rest at home."Money changes hands back and forth several times,usually three ones for a five spot.Was that my change I just traded for the five or not?I'm not sure!then he brings 3 or 4 items to the checkout.I'm sure some are decoys and some,he is not old enough to buy if he checks out,so they go in my pile.They seem harmless enough to me.The check out lady scours,the mom fumes and I just want to get out of the situation without being picked up for "Contributing".After the fact he reminds me of an upaid debt I've owed him for some time.I, being slightly older,can't remember the debt or the amount owed.His mom has slipped a few items in the pile that "she is buying" and I'm so confused I could care less.I pay the lady,look at Pat,and that smile tells me I have been HAD.
I'm going against your rule Steve and posting- I am such a good and nobel son that I never would scam my loving and trusting parents. I find it appalling that my sibling would take advantage of my parents senility! By the way Dad- don't you owe me for grades or gas or something?!? :)
A couple of things - first, the only Belinda won't know what's under the tree is if she develops dementia between now and Christmas. Second, I'm competing in a Toastmasters Christmas contest this Saturday and my speech is titled "A paper sack." It's basically the story on this blog about the holiday tradition of giving goodies in a paper sack under the Christmas tree -- embellished a bit. Okay, embellished a lot! Still, it's a pretty good story. I laughed, I cried, I wet my pants. Anyway at about 10 a.m. on Saturday, I'll either be giving the speech or picking up the trophy....I hope.
I am with beagle on this one I need to comment. But I am not going to say that I have been the best son and never scam my parents. But this time I assure you that I didn't mean for it to be a scam. I just didn't want to go shopping. I was hoping we could go in together on a gift for mom. But the gas scam is nothing compared to the Christmas of 1997. Hopefully DVD can elaborate on this topic. I don't tell the story good enough.
Well Mom and Dad figured in 1997 that their kids, me being 9 and younger brother at the tender age of 7 were old enough to buy their parents christmas presents with out parental supervision.
So one afternoon dad was going to take a nap and before we went to sleep he gave his boys each $20 and said "Go buy your Mom and me something for christmas and afterwards you can keep the change"
We focused on the last part of that command so we went to the store and Scott bought mom a pair of earings for $5 and I bought day a pair of silk, santa boxers for a whopping $3.99.
Scott and I go home feeling pretty good. We bought our presents and pocketed fifteen plus dollars.
Christmas morning comes around and they open their presents and were shocked. Dad said "This was 20 bucks?" I said "No I bought you a present for $3.99 and you said I could keep the change." In other wards... You have been had :)
FYI Dad said he wore the silk boxers once and it gave him such a wedgie he had to throw them away.
It a classic example of the VD bros.
Ttocs and DVD- I am not worthy! I must be losing my memory because I don't think that I did anything that clever when I was a youngin! Teach me your ways.
And the priest said, "Confession is good for you soul."
to revise on my comment a little it was Christmas 1999 not in 1997. That makes it even worse because DVD and I are 9 and 11.
Boy, can I tell some stories here. I guess the latest is Marissa's shower present from Lindsay. "Mom, can I pay you later" is her favorite line. What she doesn't know is that when she comes collecting for her college tuition payment this month, it will be shy 20.00. I have too many stories of Dylan's scams. Marissa didn't take advantage of me too much, but when she did, her reasons were so dumb!!!!!!!
Steve- First off- I hope that your toastmaster speech went well today. I sat in a freezing cold hockey rink- Good times! The fam. was all gathered around reading your latest post- and the subsequential posts and remenicing. Thanks for the laughs!
Beagle and others -- Like the old song says, "A little bitty tear let me down." It seems I can't talk about anything to personal or I get weepy eyed. Heaven's knows how I have been able to sing at Shorty and Wayne's memorial service this year. Any way, my evaluator was someone I've know for 20 years and she did a much better job of evaluating my speech than I did. Belinda and I had a great time getting reacquainted with a lot of old "Toastmaster" friends at the holiday brunch and the group showed a lot of support and told me what a great job I did. However, it's never any fun listening to someone when they can't keep their composure. I don't what happened. I gave this speech on Thursday night at my company Christmas party and everything went swimmingly. But this morning, Belinda said my laughter turned into a sob and then it was all downhill. That's okay...life goes on. I think the "Paper Sack" was my speech for that time. Just had to shed a few tears along the way. By the way, the other two speakers were outstanding. One was by a lady who lives in Bismarck but is originally from LA. Her speech was a comedy about returning to the LA freeways and discussing the differences between driving in Bismarck (one freeway) and LA (many freeways, cloverleafs and interchanges). The other was the Christmas reminiscings of a school program years ago in a rural, one-room school house. It too was very funny. My had some humor also...for a while. Hope Pat did well at hockey.
I do the same, Steve. Wish I knew how to get over that. At least people know when we're being frank and opening up to them, I suppose. I chose to give a Thanksgiving testimony of the long list of answered prayers regarding my two little boys (one turns 2 tomorrow!) and struggled to cry my way through it. I suppose it's better than not feeling anything at all.
repetition, repetition, repetition If I think there's a chance I'm going to get choked up I say it over and over again until I can do it. It's not fool-proof, but it helps. I remember singing "another child to hold" at both my kids baptisms and must have taken about 1,000 or so times before I could do it without bawling. It's definately a challenge. You want enough emotion so you don't sound like a robot, but yet not too much or you start blubbering.
I'm no public speaker but I can relate to your emotion.There are still two songs I can't get through after years of trying."He Aint Heavy,He's My Brother",and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".Talk about jerking some tears.I admire folks who can get in front of a crowd and talk.I think you should get extra credit for talking,and crying,in one speech.
Believe me...I'm the last person who should be asked to deliver a eulogy. I have had to do two -- Belinda's grandma's and our pastor's wife Mary's. I couldn't keep my composure through either. I would like to add another song to Ar Vee's list: "The Lightning Express" by The Everly Brothers. I cry every time since my mom passed away...probably always will.
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