The In Crowd

My kids have been back in school for a month now, and all the parents who drop off and pick up are getting used to each other as we linger outside our kids' classrooms. Which means that the moms are all friendly chatty with each other and I'm... well, I get the "Shhh, it's that dad. Don't look at him" routine.

No big deal. I don't care. I just think it's funny. Sure, it would be nice to have a little acceptance by the group.

But wait...

Moving into our own home last month, I've had to make frequent (almost daily) trips to Home Depot and Lowe's for various widgets and doo-dads. These stores are like a second home to me lately. Anyway, I've noticed that everytime I'm in there it's kind of like a little club... For men like me who are scratching our heads and trying to figure out the difference between a drywall anchor and a hollow wall anchor, or dreaming of a complete closet make-over so we can actually find a clean shirt in the morning. We nod at each other in the paint aisle and grunt approvingly while studying the crown moulding.

You can tell that half the guys in the store at any given time have no idea what they're looking for, and we're not supposed to ask the employees, so we wander the aisles until we finally figure it out. We also return items a lot, because it's the wrong size or shape. The lady at the customer service desk knows who we are, and encourages us with supportive comments like, "You'll get it right this time, yes you will!"

Hey, we might be kind of clueless now, but at least we'll learn. Those moms at the school probably never will.