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Hamburger
An excerpt from: Hidden Messages: What Our Words and Actions Are Really Telling Our Children
By Elizabeth Pantley
Curt, a bright 16-year-old, was bursting with excitement over his newly earned driver's license. His mother, seeing an opportunity for him to exercise his helpful tendencies, as well as his newfound freedom, asked him to go to the grocery store to get hamburger for dinner. The look on his face was jubilant! His mom had never trusted him with such a task.
He grabbed the car keys and made a mad dash for the garage. She went to the kitchen to begin dinner preparations. By the time she'd finished and set the table, she began to worry. Time passed -- and still more. Where was Curt?
Just as she was considering a trip of her own to find him, Curt came trudging through the door -- without hamburger. "Where's the meat?" she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. "They don't sell hamburger at our grocery store, Mom."
"Of course they do, Curt!" she exclaimed. But he sighed loudly and persisted, frustrated that his mother didn't get it.
"I went down every aisle twice, Mom, and they do not sell hamburger!"
Exasperated, she asked Curt to get back in the car, and she climbed in beside him. On the way to the store, she muttered, "It's just like always around here. If I want something done right, I have to do it myself." Once at the store, she marched over to the meat cooler, Curt dragging behind. She pointed dramatically and announced triumphantly, "There!"
She was stunned when her son, looking very puzzled -- a beacon in a sea of cellophane-packed ground meat -- said, in the sincerest of voices, "I don't see any hamburgerŠ"
It took seconds for her to make the connection. Her son -- her driver's-license-toting, beard-growing, college-bound son -- had never been asked to help with grocery shopping! Nor had he ever prepared a meal! The truth was that he couldn't recognize raw hamburger if she threw it at his head! That head was currently shaking back and forth in amazement. "Wow," he said, "I've never seen it like that before."