Rawlins Family

Rawlins Family

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Oh, Pat. You slay me.

Just to prove that my dad really does believe in the power of a good lecture (and that I get my sense of humor from him and mom equally), I have to share the following email we got from my dad after he read my last blog.

"Chase, congratulations on your lecture complete with flow chart as seen on Anna's blog.  A couple of suggestions:  

  • Make sure you save the material.  I always used manila folders but that was before computers were in wide use so you may want to do it electronically.
  • Start a numbering system.  You can simply number them sequentially or you may want to develop categories for your lectures using alpha characters and then use numbers as you have to issue subsequent lectures within the category.  For example, S-1 could be the first lecture in the series related to behavior at school and so on.

If you are diligent, you will not have to do nearly as much preparation when Miles, Sophie and subsequent children are in need of the same lecture.

The numbering system will not only enable rapid recall of the lecture material when needed, but when one of your children requires repeated re-issues of the same lecture (as Anna did) you will eventually be able to simply ask them to reflect on the required lecture by referring to its number and save both of you a lot of time.

You are becoming a very efficient father.  That's a good thing.  Keep up the good work."

And it should be duly noted that Chase's reply to this email was, "Thanks for the "Pat" on the back."

I can't tell anymore where he ends and I begin.

12 comments:

Chrystapooh said...

So classic. But true. I think, however, that it was the kids who started the numbering system, after we'd heard the same lecture 20 bajillion times. Dad would start in, then we'd roll our eyes, sigh impatiently and say, "OK Dad, I got it. Lecture number 12. I won't do it again. I promise." Said promise was always, but ALWAYS issued with all our fingers and toes as tightly crossed as we could get them. But isn't it SOOOO Dad to take the credit for being so organized??? :D

As for Chase, it's a son-in-law thing, I think. The boys want to suck up to Mom as much as possible, because she feeds them. I know that Karl practices his punning relentlessly for a month prior to any visit with Mom. You know, just so he can keep up and curry favor.

Chrystapooh said...

I'm sorry. Too many typos in the first one. Then I tried to correct in the second one, but it was just too out-of-control. I copied and pasted and edited the original instead.

I know. It's a disease.

Chrystapooh said...

OH: I love LOVE L.O.V.E. that Dad felt the need to use bullets in his email to Chase. Perfection.

Stephanie said...

AWESOME! just AWESOME!

Anna@Exasperation said...

Ha! I'm sitting here watching them all roll in. OCD much?! :)

Chrystapooh said...

No, just bipolar.

Sara K. said...

Pat needs a blog.

Nicole said...

No seriously, can I please be adopted into the family? But I still want to retain my first born status, so move on down Chrysta. I said MOVE DOWN!

Deb said...

If I may be so bold, I might recommend that Pat recommend to Chase that he consider employing the UMC numbering system, also too. As in: 1,b, iii, four, V, SUBHEAD SIX, 21, {bullet} ... etcetera and so forth for ease of comprehension.

Chrystapooh said...

Nicole, Nicole, Nicole. I love you. I want some combination of our children to marry so that this "family" thing will be locked in stone. But no way will I give up first place. You and Boone fight over that enough. Do we really need to start? Especially since I'm a full 8 years older??? And you've just found out I'm literally mental. Like, fo' rillz. Really wanna mess with that?

Deb: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously LOLing this time. No GIing here...

Sara: I can only imagine what the Pat blog would look like. Holy Schmoly.

Mandi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mandi said...

Ever read or see Cheaper by the Dozen? I think your dad did, or maybe he wrote it. ;)