Pop quiz, friends. 5 years ago I was involved in an accident with another party. We might live in the same neighbourhood.. Our kids go to the same daycare. His place of employment is somewhere my family frequents. What do I do? What do I do? (with apologies to cinephiles everywhere.)

Monday was Family Day here, in the Province of Ontario. I spent a wonderful day with my family, partaking in the winter festivities we call Winterlude.

Tested the limits a bit and went down the big tube slide with our youngest while our eldest bravely took a turn on his own. The ride was much smoother than I expected and the attendant was so kind as to not send us down the course in a vomit inducing spiral. My poor kid still screamed the whole way and was pretty angry when we reached the bottom. Maybe he'll have a different reaction next year. So I'm still having plenty of fun despite my fears and (perceived) shortcomings. Anyways, enough of my word salad. On to the main course of this posting.

Speaking of food, on a recent visit, our dear aunt gifted the kids with $10 gift cards to McDonald's (or Old McDonald's restaurant, as the kids like to call it). So to finish our special Winterlude morning, we decided to go for lunch at the Golden Arches in our neighbourhood.

It was quite busy, but the boys and I settled ourselves into a booth while my spouse waited for the order. Everyone ate happily, going out for a meal wasn't something we did often.

Upon returning from my third refill of ketchup, out of the booth behind us popped a familiar face. It was one of my kid’s classmates from daycare! Not just any kid. The kid whose father doored me waaaay back in 2014! And there he was sitting with his back to me - The Guy Who Doored Me. I politely said hi to the other kid and sat down before his dad noticed me. If you recall, I was aware that the boys were classmates but I had managed to evade regular contact beyond a friendly hello.

At this point, a million things were going through my mind:

  • Why oh why oh why?
  • Does the kid's dad even know who I am?
  • Had the dad seen me and sat down with his back to me on purpose?
  • Should I just keep playing the evasion game?
  • Maybe *HE* thinks that *I* don’t know who he is because he doesn’t wear glasses anymore.
  • Would the Chicken McNuggets instead of the Angus burger have been a less gassy option? Is there such a thing at McDonald's?

In my infinite wisdom, I did something that any dad would have done. I drew attention to my son's friend and his dad!  “Hey buddy, look there’s your classmate from daycare!” Wow. What a bonehead move. A forehead slapper as soon as the words started coming out of my mouth. Soon our boy was standing on the seat saying hi to his classmate. Oh boy. I pulled out the “Let them eat, it’s not polite” card. It worked for a few minutes until we were done eating and it was time to go. Then it became a table visit. “Hi, friend!” I managed to put on a smile and say hello to dad and his son and then we were on our way.

Now the question is how do I handle this moving forward? I’ve never been one to run away from a problem. Stall and delay until I come up with a plan, yes. I’ve done that many times. This seems like something that isn’t going away any time soon. Clearly we live in the same neighbourhood. Our kids are in the same class at the same daycare and at that age, I would even consider them to be friends. And as I’ve said before, I hold no grudge against the guy - it’s just awkward and I don’t know if it’s a topic worth raising.

With that in mind, I have several ideas:

  1. Formally introduce myself. Maybe at daycare so I can use the "well, gotta get home for supper" exit strategy. Don’t mention the past.
  2. Have a birthday party (not at our house) and invite their family. Chat casually and get to know them as people, instead of people to which I’ve attached a label
  3. Ignore and hope that after the kids go to school in the fall that we never see each other again
  4. Ask my friends for advice

I guess I’m currently invoking #4. So what do you think? Get in touch with me through the usual means or through my website!

Thanks in advance!

[Photo by Yusuf Evli ]