My Pleasure: Choosing to Be a Fast Food Parent

I appreciate drive-throughs. Some days it's nice to be able to grab a quick bite to eat or something to drink without having to get out of the car. Some days I'm just too tired to park the car and get me, my stuff, and my six-year-old out of the

Christa's favorite place to eat is Chik-fil-a. If she had her choice, she'd rather go inside and eat lunch and then spend some time in the play area making new friends. But driving through and picking up a quick snack works too. She likes to chat with the person who hands us our bag of food and our drinks.

I like Chik-fil-a food because it's not your typical hamburger-fries-and-a-coke kind of a place, although that's fine on occasion. (I humbly beg pardon if I've offended anyone's nutritional sensibilities.)

But here's what I like best about Chik-fil-a.

When I say "Thank you," to the person taking my order, the employee always says, "My pleasure."

My pleasure.

That's so much nicer than "You're welcome."

My oldest daughter's best friend works at Chik-fil-a. That's why I know that the employees are trained to say "My pleasure." They didn't just think this up. Someone older and wiser and trained in marketing and making customers happy told them to say, "My pleasure" whenever a customer says, "Thank you."

Saying, "My pleasure," implies that the person enjoyed helping you. The person was glad to help you.

Imagine that.

Now imagine applying that concept to your parenting.

Your five-year-old says, "Thank you for tying my shoes."

You say, "My pleasure."

Meaning: I was glad to help you.

Your middle schooler says, "Thanks for helping me with my research paper."

You say, "My pleasure."

Meaning: I enjoyed helping you.

I'm not saying you lie and say you enjoyed doing research or driving your child back and forth to the library. Just say you enjoyed helping her in the general sense of the word.

True confession: Too often I treat parenting as an imposition--as something I have to do instead of doing all those others things I want do. I'd rather be writing or reading or having lunch with my girlfriends or going dancing with my husband--anything other than being a mom.  

I'm going to try a fast-food approach to parenting and treat taking care of my children as a pleasure, not an imposition.

When Christa thanks me for helping her write her name, I'll say, "My pleasure,"

When Amy thanks me for throwing a load of laundry in the washing machine for her, I'll say,"My pleasure."

When Kate thanks me for handing her a few extra dollars for gas money, I'll say, "My pleasure."

I hope they hear the message behind those two little words: I'm glad I'm your mom."