Anonymous Lawyer

The older I get, the more entitled everyone else in the world seems.  Obviously, I'm entitled to feel entitled -- I'm a law firm partner after all, with almost a full head of hair, and if I can't feel entitled, who can?  But whether it's associates expecting free water bottles in the office, assistants expecting the freedom to leave their desks without a written pass, students in my course expecting me to show up every time, or ordinary people expecting special treatment just because they think people in this world should be civil to each other, it really seems like things have gotten worse and worse over the past couple of decades.

Last night, for instance, New Wife and I took our baby out to dinner with us, to a medium-fancy French place, not like the fanciest in the city but also not like a casual night out kind of place.  And of course whenever we bring our baby somewhere, we also bring the nanny just in case he cries or needs to be changed or someone looks at him funny and we think it would be better to have them wait outside until we're finished -- but next to us was this other couple, and they had a kid with them who was probably 18 months, maybe 2, maybe 6 -- it's so hard to tell how old someone else's child is -- and I hear them asking the waitress for a straw for him, so he can drink his wine, or champagne, or whatever it was they were giving him.  It was pale, so I think maybe it was a vinho verde, or maybe it was just mineral water, who knows what people are giving their kids, but hopefully if it was a vinho verde, it was a decent one because you don't want to screw up your kid's palate by giving them lousy wine before they even have a baseline sense of what a good one is like.  So, they ask for a straw, as if a nice French bistro is supposed to be able to accommodate children like that.  Sure enough, they actually gave the kid a straw, and it even seemed like they comped him a serving of foie gras after they saw him eating off his dad's plate.  I have nothing against kids eating in fancy restaurants as long as they're using the right flatware, but the entitlement that this couple must have, to ask for a straw -- a straw -- was really quite astonishing to me.  And it turns out the parents didn't even have professional degrees -- if I was overhearing accurately, he was a graphic designer and she was -- of course -- in marketing.  So what they were doing at a restaurant with tablecloths, I'm really not sure.

Anyway, we survived the night out, and, look, I have to give the other couple credit because their kid did accurately steer us away from the tarte tatin when he told us it seemed like it had been microwaved, so, kudos to them for giving him a good gastronomic grounding, and I gave him my card and told him to look me up if he ends up interested in the law, but, still, then I show up back in the office at 10:30 to finish up some late Sunday work, and one of my associates is in the conference room with his shoes off.  Even on Sunday night, come on, you have to wear shoes.  There is no excuse.  Not even the foot surgery he had on Thursday.