Dinner with my parents

Last week my parents came to the city to have dinner with me. It was supposed to be a Mother's Day/Birthday dinner but since it was closer to my birthday, I think my mom got the short end of the celebration stick. It didn't matter, the food was delicious and it's always great to spend time together.

However, at dinner I learned two things. First, my mom doesn't know how old I am. Second, my parents don't actually know what I do for a living.

I'll explain.

My mom was reminiscing about the day that I was born. She does this almost every year, mostly to remind me that she was in labor a long time and that I was already past my due date. I was stubborn from day one. This time, she was telling the story and started out 'It was 31 years ago today that we went into the hospital.' My dad and I both gave her a really funny look and she didn't understand. We were actually giving her looks for two different reasons. I looked at her and said 'Mom, do you know how old I am?' My dad looked at her and said 'We didn't go into the hospital two full days early.' You see, I just turned 32, not 31 and they were only in the hospital one full night before I was born, not two. My mom felt a little silly.

Then, they were telling me about their recent trip to San Diego where they saw a lot of old friends. Many of them asked how I was doing and what I was up to. Basically, my parents could tell them where I worked and vaguely what I do but they really had no clue. I've pretty much been in this line of work 7 of the last 10 years. So, I gave them a tutorial. (If you are interested, I work in fundraising. Specifically direct response fundraising focusing on annual giving.)