dads

I'll often send rambling e-mails to my parents - sometimes I'll put my brothers on them, too - in which I'll report some news ("Dad, your beloved 'Person of Interest' is filming on my street today...") or, more commonly, ask for advice about something ridiculous ("Should I be worried that I've had a 'water in my ear' feeling for 36 hours now?"). Almost without fail, my mom will reply within the hour. Either she'll send something brief from her phone ("sounds fun," "be careful," "im not really sure, honey"), or she'll write a longer message (perhaps with a relevant link or two obtained from a hasty Google search). Occasionally one of my brothers will contribute a sarcastic remark to the thread.

My dad, however, will rarely respond. If I've specifically asked for his opinion, or if my mom has written back with a "I defer to your father on this one," then he'll crank out a response -- but, otherwise, infrequently. Sometimes though, a few days later, the chain long since defunct, he'll respond to my initial e-mail (reply sender) with something completely unrelated. Like, he'll reply to the "weird thing on my electric bill" chain from a week ago (which he never weighed in on at the time) with the message: "Interesting article about writers on page 7 of wall street journal today." This specific habit of his strikes me as just about the most "Dad" behavior I could conceive of.