Ross: Signing up for vaccine has children becoming the parents

As regular listeners of Seattle’s Morning News are well aware, ever since I started sharing my problems scheduling a COVID shot, Colleen has been pestering me to be more persistent instead of giving up after just one website. I dismissed her efforts as simply the reflexes of a former cheerleader.

But as it turns out, she’s not the only one. The two members of her generation that I was directly involved in raising have been so insistent about the point that yesterday, daughter number two called from West Virginia and remained on the phone while I followed her instructions to sign up online.

I entered my birthday, my phone number, and clicked on all the squares with traffic lights — no I am not a robot, here’s my email — I selected a date, and then, sure enough, right before the confirmation page, just as I was on the cusp of becoming one of the chosen, the slot was suddenly no longer available. This went on for 32 minutes.

I said “thank you, dear, for trying to help, you are a wonderful daughter, but it’s like the ferry line: I’ll just open a book until someone honks and it’s time to drive on to the boat. Plus, I need to get busy writing tomorrow’s commentary!”

So we hang up – and not half an hour later, I get a text.

“Dad, I booked appointments for both you and mom, here are the dates, with confirmations in your email. And it’s just across the bridge in Bellevue.”

So that’s the secret. Have children who know how to game websites.

But here’s the other consequence of this little episode, having nothing to do with the vaccine: the feeling that the child just became the parent.

It never occurred to me that as a consequence of me not helping myself, my offspring would feel compelled to do it for me. Both of them have been trying, even as they’re busy with children of their own.

So, I felt both grateful and guilty. But I have learned an important lesson: If you are willing to accept the kindness of others, you may find that you can get both a vaccine appointment, and a fairly decent commentary to boot.

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