I was once waiting at a prospective client’s office for a meeting  to discuss about a proposal of work I had put forward. The meeting got delayed by a few hours. Since I had taken the effort to travel to the client’s office, I felt it would be better to finish the meeting the same day itself.

I was finally in the client’s office. After profusely apologising for the delay, my client started the discussion, when suddenly his mobile phone rang. He again excused himself saying that it is a call from his son and had to take it.

The conversation went on like this:
”Hello….Sorry am delayed cannot make it today…..what do you think we should do?….do you have any suggestions?… good idea…..can you please convince the others….”
I have no idea about the context of the conversation, but what made me think was that a father was talking to his son like an adult, making the child feel like one, there was no authoritative tone  in the conversation.

Seeing the family portrait on the table, my guess is that his son is not more than 10 years old.
The same conversation could have been mistaken to be between two adults.

My meeting with the prospective client did not go anywhere professionally, but learnt as to how one should talk to a child.