Because I said so

A woman came in the store this morning and bought several items, including ear buds. She asked me, “How much are the ear buds today?” I told her the price and asked, “Didn’t you just buy some of these?”
She said, “Yeah, but my daughter took them. She was listening to some music that I didn’t like and told me, ‘If you don’t want to hear it, then I’m gonna take your ear buds.’ So that’s why I’m buying some more.”
I sort of laughed and said, “When my children were younger, if I didn’t like the music they were listening to I just said, “Turn that down.”

And that got me to thinking about some phrases I heard growing up. One of my Dad’s favorites was, “Children should be seen and not heard.” Another phrase we heard often was, “Because I said so.” As in, “Jeff, do this.” I would say, “Why do I have to do that? I don’t want to do that.” And the reply would be, “Because I said so.” That meant the discussion is over, now go do it.

I don’t mean to imply that we were always well behaved children. When I was growing up, roaming was a common practice. And did we ever roam. We would be home for lunch and supper, but we wandered all over the place. And got into trouble. I can’t go into any details - there may still be outstanding warrants out on us. I mean, whenever I go to Hawaii I have to use my fake passport to avoid being picked up at the airport.

Would my parents have let me take their ear buds and then go and buy another pair? Well, they didn’t even have ear buds back then, but if they did, not on your life. If we would have asked to use theirs they would have said, “No.” And when asked why not, they would have said, “Because I said so.” And we would have gotten a job and bought our own.

What did I say when my children tried to take my ear buds? They were just coming into reality when my children started to get older, but I would have said “No” and either gotten them some for Christmas or they could have gotten a job and bought their own. But then, I was so mean that when we were travelling together and one of my girls started to put headphones on, I would always say, “No, take ‘em off.” And when they asked why, I would say, “Because I said so.” Actually, it was because I felt like by putting on headphones they were isolating themselves from the family and, after all, this was a family trip. I just said “Because I said so” because that’s what I heard my parents say!