The Pecan Park Eagle

BEST: Father Cons Teenage Daughter Out of Her Fast Food Chicken Dinner: A father is talking with his teenage daughter across the family kitchen bar, where the girl is munching away on what appears to be something like Chicken Nuggets. (Not sure.) “Dad,” says the girl, “you’re not getting any of my Chicken Nuggets. OK?” – The home phone rings. Dad answers. “Oh, Hi, Chuck. Yes, she’s right here. – “I’ll take it in my room,” says the girl, as she rushes away to speak with her boy friend. – Enter Mom. “Who was that on the phone?” Mom asks. “Telemarketer,” Dad says, as he ploughs into the box of abandoned chicken.

PRODUCT? It’s either KFC or McDonald’s. They haven’t hit my saturation point on product retention and sometimes I don’t really have one.

WORST: Vegetarian Boy Friend Invited to Family Dinner by Teenager: Everything about it is absurdly annoying. This only child teenage girl comes home twenty minutes before a family luncheon and announces to her mother that she has invited her vegetarian boy friend to join them. She is anxious because he cannot eat the meat dishes her mother is almost finished preparing. Instead of telling her daughter to grab her allowance and take the boy friend to a salad bar, Mom flies into a Google search for “quick vegetarian recipes” and changes her whole meal plan to one that please everyone, but dear old Dad, who stares unhappily at his plate and the boy friend at the dinner table as the visitor, daughter, and Mom all scarf it down as though it were delicious.

Product? After 100 or so involuntary viewings as a result of my TV surfing habit while simultaneously writing, I’m not totally sure. It’s either Google or AT&T Internet services.

My Analysis: I can see the analytical thread that runs through my picks for the currently best and worst TV commercials, even if I have been out of the child-rearing era of my life for a few years now. In my best pick, Dad gets the best of his food-misering daughter. In my worst pick, Dad is the typical TV out-of-the-loop father, who experiences all the results and none of the active consideration in everything that happens within the family.

My own experience as a father was what I hope I still am: I don’t have to be right about everything because I never was and never will be – right about everything. On the other hand, I’m also pretty darn sure that I’m not always wrong about everything, either, and that I do choose to be in the family loop on decisions that affect us all.

Now, when you can juggle and balance that kind of resolution in your mind, it also becomes possible to write and watch television at the same time.