The Matt Lauer scandal

Here it is, I have two kids. The oldest is 7 and in second grade, Nico. We live in a predominantly Jewish community and Nico attends public school. There is a lot of parent involvement in the school and the vast majority of the parents are 30+ years old. It is a stark difference from the elementary school I went to.

My whole grade school career I thought I had a very old dad. He was 26 when I was born and my mom was 21. So by the time I was in kindergarten he was an old man in his 30’s! All the other parents were in their 20’s like my mom- with the exception of one kid- he had brothers and sisters who were in high school! His parents looked like something you’d take to Antiques Roadshow for an appraisal.

Brings me to myself, although I waited until I was 30 to start having kids, I’ve kept myself up. I exercise daily, eat healthy(for the most part – with the exception of mass amounts of peanut butter) use skincare with an broad spectrum SPF, and a face serum (LMDB Longevity Serum- I will get into the details of this another time, so good!) I rarely consume alcohol, and I’ve never smoked. Most important, I enjoy staying current with clothing, technology and haircuts (which I do my myself).

In terms of me, now being a parent at the school my son attends …i may get a false sense of youth. Many of the parents are older(40+) responsible(an abundance of minivans and Subaru’s) sensible (supportive sneakers and tevas-but not in the retro way)- all which tend to add a bit of age.

It reminds me of this old paper comic my aunt had stuck to her brown refrigerator. I never quite understood the, until now. “my new diet – I’ve found bigger friends ” or something like that.

Either way I feel like a young parent. (Even thought my sister-in -law is younger than me and she’s a grandmother- which is more of the norm than not where I grew up.) so technically I could be a grandparent.

I also play and run and build legos and think I really have a good sense of humor with my boys – we joke and laugh all the time.

Which brings me to the day the Matt Lauer scandal broke.

Every morning from 7-7:30 I put on the Today Show to catch tidbits of news as the family and I gets ready to head out for the day.

We talk about he news or the weather on the way to school. It’s fun and engaging for all of us.

Well a couple months ago there was a scandal that rocked my world. The tv turned on and there was no Matt Lauer greeting us. We were to busy to really understand why he was missing that morning as we were trying to weather the fact that we had ran out of Gorilla Munch and had to serve Honey Nut Cheerios. The kids were not happy and they let us know. On a side note- we have since completely switched to Gorilla Munch or Panda Puffs. Honey Nut Cheerios are dead to my boys. But in the back of the pantry there is a half-full, not half empty (positive thinking) box of Honey Nut Cheerios…just in case also because I don’t want to thrown them out – how wasteful.

Well, I had just survived that debacle as we were heading out the door when I paused to catch some gory details of the Matt Lauer scandal.

Unfortunately, my seven year old son Nico heard portions of the story. He gasped as we walked out the door. “Dad did you hear that! Matt Lauer-” But before he could get another word out I cut him off. I told him it was inappropriate and he didn’t have to be worrying about or trying to figure out what he’d just heard. “But dad I can’t believe-”

Again I stopped him I wasn’t ready to delve in to the sorted details and accusations that I’d wed just heard.

“Nico we don’t have to worry about this right now. I now he is your favorite anchor and he’s a good news anchor but sometimes people do things in their private lives that are bad. People make bad decisions and people let power go to their heads. ” I went in to a whole long speech about staying grounded and humility and treating women with respect and staying true to your self no matter how much success and power you achieve. I went on for he whole 6 minute walk to school.

I was actually pretty impressed with myself. I’m good! Parent of the year! What a teaching moment! I’ve took some morning news and turned it into a real teaching moment! Solid gold advice.

But before I could celebrate too much, we arrived at Nicos class and he said,

“But dad, I can’t believe Matt Lauer-”

I shushed him “nico whisper- we’re at your school and there are kids around(and nosy judgmental parents)”

So he continued -this time whispering,

“I can’t believe Matt Lauer is 59 years old!”

I looked at him puzzled. He’s a middle aged man, I knew that. Of course he is, I wouldn’t have flinched if they’d said he was 65 years old.

Then nico continued.

“You look way older than him!”

Older than Matt Lauer?!

So that’s it. To my seven year old- regardless of all the time I spend in the gym, all the foods I avoid, all the shopping, and grooming and creams and current music and sunglasses and sneakers, I still look older than Matt Lauer.

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