How did I not know?

My wife and I have been married for 29 years. When you’ve lived together that long with another person, you start to think you’ve seen and heard it all. You start to feel like you’ve come to know your wife and kids, their likes, preferences, better than you know yourself. 

However, I found out this week that I’m still learning. 

My wife and I went grocery shopping. It was our typical weekly grocery visit. I’ve made tons of these visits over the years with my wife and on my own. Since I’ve been drinking more hot tea of late in my attempt to give up caffeinated soda, I grabbed a box of Lipton Tea. When I threw the box in the cart, my wife pulled it back out and handed it to me and looked at me like I had lost my mind.

“We’re a Tetley family. How did you not know that?” 

Now my wife is the most mild-mannered woman you’ll ever meet. She helps old ladies bag their groceries, she picks up stray cats and dogs on her way home from work, she gives to the needy, she’s the closest thing I’ll ever come to seeing a live saint. I swear, though, I heard her drop a Bart Simpson “D’oh” at the end of her comment, implying that I was a moron.

Um, what are you talking about Honey? 

When did we decide that?

I soon learned that we’re a Tetley Tea Family and we’ve always been that way. When I asked what the difference was, I was told that’s just the way it is, Tetley is better. Hmm, okay, that’s good to know. I can’t say I would notice a bit of difference between the two teas, as far as I’m concerned they taste the same, so it certainly didn’t matter to me.

I chalked it up as a learning experience, sort of like the same way I learned a few months ago which peanut butter “we” preferred. I mistakenly had thought that all peanut butters tasted the same. I went grocery shopping by myself, and I picked up a large jar of Jif Peanut Butter. I have no idea why I chose Jif over Skippy, Smucker’s, Peter Pan or a million other brands. I suspect the bright red, blue, and green label jumped out at me.

Boy, was I ever wrong!

As soon as I walked in the door, I was on thin ice. Now the only kid still living at home at the time was our youngest, but all three of my kids were soon appalled at my poor taste and chimed in on my silliness. “We like Skippy Dad!”

I mentioned that two of them didn’t even live at home anymore, but I was shouted down for my poor taste. 

You had your say

When I got up the courage and asked my wife about when we had voted on our tea choices — I certainly must have missed that day — my wife reminded me I was given the privilege years ago of choosing our soda selection. I chose Pepsi or Diet Pepsi. Our kids, though, have rebelled, long preferring Coke. I’ve since given up drinking Diet Pepsi, but I would still like to win one of these battles.

Ha, ha, just my luck, my kids have turned on me. Oh, the joys of being a part of a family. One word of caution: Tip-toe lightly.