GOOD FOR NOTHING

In a restaurant recently, I was, as is usual for me, eavesdropping on a conversation of people in an adjoining booth.  I determined that a woman sitting behind me was dining with her husband and her parents.  She told that her daughter, who was receiving $10.00 weekly allowance, was expected to clean her room but the girl wouldn't do the work. The grandparents agreed that they wouldn't give her the $10.00 but the father of the girl said he didn't want to take the allowance away from her.

I turned around and joined in the conversation as I said, "Tell her you could be eating at The Refectory instead of the Waffle House if you took away her allowance." Gerald whispered to me, "They might not know the reference about The Refectory." I then told them about how Gerald's niece once sought my advice in getting her two children to do their chores. They were receiving $7.00 per week.

After Gerald's niece called, I went to their home and I said to the grand-niece and grand-nephew, "I'm going to clean your rooms and your mom is going to pay me $14.00."

Their protestations began: "Oh, no, Aunt Sue, I'll do it." and "Please, Aunt Sue, don't go to my room." I said, "I can't believe you're getting an allowance; when I was a kid, we were good for nothing." [It went over their heads.]

As I sat and enjoyed conversation with the parents, the kids were busily cleaning their rooms. They called down the stairs for their mother to come to inspect their rooms and they obviously passed muster as she handed $7.00 to each one of them.

The threat of calling Aunt Sue worked very well for quite some time.

Today, I said to the couple in the restaurant, "Don't you have an old Aunt Sue-type you can use?"

The mother answered, "They're all too nice." I responded, "Nobody ever accused me of being nice.", to which Gerald said, "Yeah, she's good;  it's too bad she isn't nice!"