What (solicited) parenting advice would you give in the checkout line?

The Trader Joe's clerk says I may have changed his life

Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash

“Ooh, you’ve got a lot of sharing food,” he says. “Having a party?”

I laughed and explained that I have a big family.

“How big is big? Four kids?”

“Six. But they don’t all live at home.”

He raises his eyebrows. “That IS big. Wow. How old is your youngest?”

“Fifteen.”

“Oh, so you’re almost finished, then!”

I smile. That’s adorable.

“What will you do when you have an empty nest? Got plans yet? Maybe go back to school?”

This time I laugh outright. My C.V. flashes through my brain, but I’m not going to rattle off my credentials in the checkout line. I say, “I’ve got plenty to keep me busy.”

He’s finished swiping my groceries now and begins bagging the items I haven’t gotten to yet. “I’m at the other end of things,” he says. “Mine are two and five.”

“That’s awesome!” I say. “Such fun ages.” (They’re all fun ages. But two and five are especially delightful.)

He gets serious for a minute. “Do you have any advice for me? Something you wish you’d known at this stage?”

Now my entire history of lessons-learned is flashing through my brain. We’re almost finished, just the produce left. What would you say, if you had to distill your best parenting advice to an elevator pitch?

“Well,” I begin, hoping I’ll be able to be concise. [Narrator: She wouldn’t.]