Stoopid Boyz

So I was at a pretty darn expensive children's clothing store yesterday. They are a chain, and associated with a set of franchises that run pretty darn expensive exercise and art classes for children. I am hunting for an item that doesn't have some darling pattern or collar that renders it unfit to mix and match with the Bean's wild collection of fall hand-me-downs. There is a lady already at cash, and she is talking with the cashier. Their conversation goes something like this:

Woman "The problem is, what do we do about daddies and (store name)?"

Cashier "I know! They're so tense about money!"

Woman "Well, they don't really need to know what it costs, do they?"

(both laugh)

I have the unfortunate habit of hearing things and not reacting to them until much later, so I didn't really register the whole thing until this morning. I just woke up thinking, "Why is the cat howling next to the Bean's sleeping head for no visible reason?" And after that, I thought, "What was with those women in (store name) yesterday?"

When did we decide that fathers don't need to be informed, much less involved, in what goes on with their kids? Aren't they putting money in? Don't they get to have an opinion about whether or not pretty darn expensive classes are worth pinching pennies in other places? And even more fundamentally, how must that woman feel about fathers (and the father of her kid in particular) to stand right there in public and be so openly dismissive of them and him?

And can exercise and art classes really undo for that woman's children the low regard she has for the brain power of the opposite sex? It's really not that hard to grasp that the family might still be able to eat while the kids attend expensive classes, unless Mrs. Disdainful doesn't want to cut corners anywhere else to make up for it. So how does this reflect on her son's intellectual power? On her daughter's attitudes?

It's sad.