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Christmas shopping can get confusing.
So when one grandson comes out, Nana has a color question.
The cashier tries not to laugh.
See why pink wins in the end.
Worlds best grandma
I was recently thinking about my time working at a major UK video game store well over a decade ago, and there’s a story from back then that always makes me chuckle.
And was one of the most heartwarming things I’ve seen.
Having a Nintendo DS Lite was the wish of many kids.
One year, the big Christmas item was the Nintendo DS Lite with Nintendogs.
The console came in blue or pink with the game packaged with the console.
Unlike most big Christmas items, I actually loved this one since we had zero problems with stock.
There were literally hundreds of them in the back room so we never got yelled at by frantic Christmas present hunting parents over it.
One morning, an older woman comes in and is browsing looking slightly lost.
She eventually walks into the Nintendo section, looks at a note she has written down and then comes over to the counter to ask for some help.
This was par for the course around Christmas.
Lot of parents and grand parents with Christmas lists looking befuddled. I go over to the Nintendo section with her and she hands me the note she was looking at.
Her grandson will be very pleased.
Grandma – “My daughter says my 16 year old grandson would like one of these for Christmas, am I looking at the right thing?”
The note said Nintendo ds, so I told her that yes she was in the right place. She did a little smile and neck swivel at this, obviously proud she’d got it right.
We talked about the different options of packages with games, accessories, etc etc. And she pauses for a second and then says,
Grandma – “I’m not sure if I should ask this or not. I’m not sure if it’s ok to ask”.
I was 90% sure that she was going to ask for a discount, so I just said that she can ask whatever she likes and I promised I would be ok.
Well that took an unexpected turn.
Grandma – “My grandson has recently came out”
Ok, not what I was expecting and that’s not really how it works, but she was trying, bless her.
Grandma – “Does that mean he’d like the pink one?”.
I’ve got to admit that I had to work hard to keep a straight face because this caught me completely off guard.
I desperately wanted to laugh but I also didn’t want her to be embarrassed.
I could tell it was a genuine earnest question and she was trying really hard to get something he’d like. I took a second to collect myself a bit and think how to respond.
Me – “Well coming out doesn’t necessarily means he likes pink things. But it also doesn’t mean he doesn’t. Does he have other pink things?”.
Grandma is really putting a lot of thought into this.
Grandma – “Well no, but up till now he’s been pretending to be not out, so I don’t know if he’d have pink things even if he wanted to. And I don’t want to assume he’d like the pink one because I think he’d think I’m making fun of him”.
We had a bit more of a chat and I explained that it’s up to her, but whatever she bought, as long as it wasn’t opened could be exchanged for a different one if he wanted to change it.
The policy at the time was that anything bought in the run up to Christmas didn’t have the exchange and refund 30 days start until December 26th. She decided to get the black one and have a think about it.
She made the safe choice.
Grandma – “He likes the color black so I think he’ll like this.”
That afternoon she comes back in and he grandson is with her. Now she cannot have been a hair over 5 foot 1.
He was 6 foot 2 of gangly teenage metalhead. Long hair, black slayer t shirt, ripped jeans, long black leather jacket and boots.
It wasn’t far off that photo of the undertaker with his grandma.
They come over to the counter and she asks to exchange the DS for the pink nintendogs one with a bit of a smile.
As they leave I heard them talking.
Teenage undertaker – “Thanks Nana”.
She really is very sweet.
Grandma – “Now remember, just because you know what you’re getting, it doesn’t mean your allowed it before Christmas day”.
Teenage undertaker – “I know Nana”
What a sweet grandmother, she was willing to go out of her way to make sure her grandson got what he wanted for Christmas.
Let’s see what the people in the comments think about it.
Here is someone who enjoyed the story.
This was pretty funny.
She is a great grandmother.
This commenter loved the story.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a company that didn’t expect their work-from-home policy to result in better time off benefits for their employees.
I’m sure they will.
The grandmother genuinely wanted to choose a Nintendo DS her grandson would love, without making assumptions about what coming out meant.
She returned later with her towering metalhead grandson, who happily swapped the black console for the pink Nintendogs version.
Turns out Nana absolutely understood the assignment.