Not being done sometimes is a good thing....

This past Saturday, I drove down U.S. Highway 127 between a small town outside of Dayton, Ohio; and a town called Hamilton, also in Ohio. The distance was only 47 road miles but when one stops for coffee, potty breaks, lunch and every little and large yard sale along the highway, it became a five hour trek.

The Beatles on the radio -- mainly Sir Paul McCartney -- kept me company as I traveled down the road.

One of the many things I encountered was the parenting styles of those traveling along the same route. Some of the same people I saw at one place, I would see again and again; others gave up the chase for whatever it was they were truly looking for and returning home. Some parents should have left their children at home. Others should have encouraged them to get out of their cars or trucks and walk around.

And there were some parents, well, they should have stayed in the car and let their kids walk around instead.

One parent -- I'm going to call her "Clara" because I don't know her real name; and even if I did, I would not want to share it with you in this form of a story -- had her son Dean to come with her as she shopped the many homes along the roadway. Dean was a pretty well-behaved young boy, probably about eight or nine, but like all kids on such a long and diverse day was bored at parts and excited at others.

He was bored while his mom would look at the crystal and glass containers, going for a quarter a piece. She would carefully look at each piece and ask questions of the owner. She would open her change purse, take out some money and hand it over to the person. That person would carefully wrap the glass items up and give them to Clara, who would open her oversized carrying pouch and place them in the cloth pouch.

"Are we done yet?" Dean would ask.

"Not done yet", his mom would reply.

They would finish their shopping, return to their Ford Fiesta, and drive to the next location.

At the next location, there was a swing set and some other kids to play with.

It appeared that Dean made friends quickly because in a few minutes they were all giving each other pushes on the swing while keeping tabs on where their parents were. Finally, Clara looked around and I and another man pointed in the direction of the swing set, with the other man saying "I think your boy is over there on the swings".

Clara walked over and before too long the two of them took off, with Dean waving "Bye" to his new friends.

I later caught up to the two -- actually I caught up with Dean -- as he was in toy heaven. All kinds of plastic and some metal cars, trucks, spaceships, animals. It was as if Toys 'R Us went out of business and just dumped everything they had in any kind of inventory onto these people's yard.

A woman walked by me and whispered "you think all of these toys belonged to one kid? If so, Lordy have mercy on his parents!!" We both giggled at the possibility before we separated and continued to look for our things. I don't know what she was looking for, but I was hoping that among all of these toys that the popular Steve and Bill Scout dolls would be there alongside all of the Malibu Barb friends.

Clara was over at another person's area, looking again at the glass and crystal items. She looked over at her son, still playing by himself among all of the various toys. She yelled, "Are we done yet?" in his direction.

Her son, without a beat, stood up and yelled back, "Not done yet, Mom!"

I had to laugh...

They later passed me in the lunch counter line in a little town called Seven Mile. They had arrived earlier and was picking up their lunchtime meals and going to the front of the store to pay for them.

As they walked toward the front of the store, Clara looked around and found a bag of chips, adding them to the sandwiches and the drinks to pay for.

I was four people behind them in line.

"So what's the best part you've liked about today, Dean?" his mother asked.

"Um. The last place with all of the toys. But I like the place with the swing set too,“ he replied, looking at the various cookies and sweet things lined up there.

"Mom, what is the best part about today for you?"

Clara looked and then whispered something to her son, who then hugged her tight.

"Hey, let me pay for all of this..." she said.

Dean looked up and said "Not done yet, Mom...." and continued to hug his mom.