Quadruple Ouch

Yesterday I had to meet with a sales rep for a company that primarily sells playground equipment. He rattled off the names of a half dozen local playgrounds where you could see examples of the equipment. I told him that my office manager's kids go to one of the schools he mentioned.

So of course, he asked her about it. It went down like this:

Sales Guy: Hey, Kate says your kids go to Blabitty Bla Elementary! We just redid the playground there last year!

Office Manager: Oh, the one my kids keep getting hurt on?

Me: Snort.

It gets better. See, our office manager is about the nicest woman you'd ever want to meet, so she didn't say it sarcastically or meanly at all. It just kind of tumbled out of her mouth, and you could tell she instantly felt bad.

So then there was an akward exchange of them talking over each other, her trying to say that she blames the overworked teachers, who can't keep an eye on so many kids at once, while he was saying some parts are meant for older kids and maybe her daughter was too young to play on them, but would really enjoy them when she got older.

The coup de grace? Her kids are the most delicate, injury-prone children on the planet. I'm not the least bit surprised they got hurt on the playground. They get hurt or sick standing perfectly still. Seriously. In the last year, her kids have had:

Head Lice (that was a fun one)
Tonsilitis
Strep throat (about 4 times, no joke)
Anxiety
High blood pressure (at 8 years old! 8!)
Sprained ankle
Several bouts of cold/flu
Stomach virus separate from the flu
Allergies
Sinus infection
Concussion

Of course, the sales guy had no way to know that.