Parenting Outside The Box

(A customer approaches me, with an eight-year-old girl in tow.)

Customer: “Hi! Can you help me load this box into my car?”

Me: “Absolutely!”

(We struggle for five minutes, putting seats down, tossing things around, and contorting the box as best we can. In the end, it’s laying on top of the (now flat) passenger seat, stretching across to the back seat on the opposite side. The remaining seat is full of stuff we had to move around.)

Customer: “Whew! We’re good!”

Customer’s daughter: “Mommy, where am I going to sit?”

Customer: “You’re, uh… going on the roof.”