High Blood Pressure At the Gas Station

On my way home from the radio show yesterday, I stopped at a local gas station to fill up the old tank.

As with check out lines at the supermarket, I rarely pick the “right” one. Even the ones that LOOK the shortest end up being the worst possible choice.

Hard to believe but sometimes the woman with a 100 things in his cart moves faster than the guy with 6 things in the express line.

Well, yesterday was a definite test of stress management.

I pulled in behind a woman in an Escalade. All the other lines were 3 or 4 cars deep.

Next thing I know, the woman is having her 5-year-old son pump the gas for her.

Cute?

No. Having a small child juggle a nozzle and pump and flowing caustic liquid is NOT cute. It’s dangerous. It’s like handing a kid that age Drano to unplug the shower.

Health issues aside, the kid takes forever trying to figure out how the whole thing works. Not his fault, to be sure. He has no concept that cars are stacking up behind her (and me) like pigs to the trough.

Minutes pass and the kid is still pumping.

Then the woman yells at the kid for spilling gas all over her nice Escalade. But whose fault was THAT??

Then a few minutes later, she gets the kids back in the car. Then she takes paper towel and starts cleaning her car.

All the while, tons of cars are lined up behind her.

She looks right AT ME with no sense of remorse or embarrassment or shame.

Here she is, the Entitlement Queen of the Day, acting as if the whole world stops for her. SHE is only one who matters. HER TIME is all that exists.

This is the kind of person and behavior that are ruining the fabric of this country.

When she finally got her engine fired up, she pulled out at the pace of a snail.

Another example of why I am so firm with my kids about the importance of a SENSE OF URGENCY. Whether its brushing their teeth or getting ready for school or doing a school project–we instill in them the need to make it the most important task at that moment and to do it with diligence and pride.

If we all performed our tasks this way, the machine would run more smoothly for everyone.