Tara’s Takes
Have you ever had a dating site profile? I have not, but I assume one would start with basic questions. And as the “relationship” grew, the other person would find out more about you.
A little to begin with. Then, a little more. You may start chatting through the app. Maybe you give them your “insta” as my kids call it. Evenutally, perhaps a phone number or an email. Finally, once you’ve met them in a public place and have vetted them, they might get your address.
No matter how far in the dating steps you go, they are baby steps. Which makes me question, why is it whenever we make a retail transaction, we’re jumping to step six in the dating world?
I want to purchase a sweater, not go on a date.
Imgine it — you walk up to a sales clerk, product in hand. Hopefully the first question they ask is if you found everything OK.
The second question is almost always, “what’s a good phone number?”
Why? Are they planning to call and chat after their shift.
After that, it’s usually a simple, “what is the best email?”
Are we becoming penpals?
I just want to buy a sweater. Sorry sales clerk I’m taken.
It’s even worse in a drivethru. “Are you using the mobile app today?”
Now, I’ve been at work all day and then straight to soccer and haven’t eaten since my two cups of coffee at 7 a.m. It is now 8:30 p.m. and I’m getting hangry. If I don’t get a Diet Coke and some overly-processed, very salty fries in my body soon, I may have a meltdown that would make a 2-year-old jealous.
I know they have to ask those questions. And maybe I should be taking the time to look at the mobile app.
But honestly, I’m not planning ahead if I’m in a fast food drive-thru. If I had planned ahead, I would have meal prepped and had something waiting at home for us. Or I would have packed food this morning so I didn’t live on caffiene and choas all day.
And if I did those things, I’d have my life together and we all know that’s not happening, so let’s just let me have my McDonald’s fries and Diet Coke and move on.
I do, however, find it funny that we are teaching our kids to be careful on the internet. That we don’t just give our information to strangers. Yet we are quick to hand over that cellphone number out loud at a register for a chance to save 5%. Or we rattle off our email like it’s the color of shoes we’re wearing if it means we get reward points.
We can get those points for everything. I singlehandedly fed my teenage boys Casey’s pizza multiple times off my reward points this summer.
I earn reward points every time Natalie talks me into Scooters Coffee. They aren’t acutally reward points — they are smile points, and I’m sure that makes them way more valuable. But I don’t know what I’m earning.
However, I will still lecture my kids on being aware of to whom they give their personal contact information and try to scare them with any true crime story that started from a dating app.
Yet I am still going to enter my Casey’s rewards every time I get a Diet Coke. And I will “TRY” to stay calm as I say “no” to using the mobile app at McDonalds before I can get my fries.
Heck, maybe someday one of those exchanges will turn into a new penpal.
