<p>I believe my Mom signs her credit cards “ID required.”</p>
<p>I sign mine “ask for ID”. About one in twenty times am I asked. Never in restaurants. The theory is that my signature isn’t there to be copied but the space isn’t blank to allow a thief to sign it.
Many stores ask for zip code, but I have never encountered it at a gas station. Of course I buy most of my gas at Costco, where they already have my member ID swiped first.</p>
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<p>I have no idea what you are talking about!</p>
<p>^ I think what he/she referred to is the fact that, outside of the pipe where the fuel is pumped through, there is another layer of pipe. The shape of this outer pipe looks like the part of an accordion which is flexible (i.e., you could push and pull while you are playing the accordion.) It looks like the air duct of the dryer as well.</p>
<p>I think it’s been over a year since I have pumped gas (!!!) but I don’t remember anything like that… I wonder if it is there and I just haven’t noticed or if we don’t have that here. </p>
<p>I have gotten really good at conveniently running out of gas when fiance has an errand to run so I can have him take my car and put gas in it while he’s out. 
Before I had changed my address he had to keep my zip code saved into his phone so he could remember it when he used my card at the pump.</p>
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Good thing the new year is rolling about, eh? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I think what he/she referred to is the fact that, outside of the pipe where the fuel is pumped through, there is another layer of pipe. The shape of this outer pipe looks like the part of an accordion which is flexible (i.e., you could push and pull while you are playing the accordion.) It looks like the air duct of the dryer as well. >></p>
<p>These are regional, depending on state/county law. IME, they are more common in big-city areas, which often also have emissions checks, etc for vehicles.</p>
<p>I have occasionally been informed that my credit card can’t be accepted unless signed, so I sign it in front of the cashier. My signature on the card is MUCH neater than the one I generally sign receipts with. </p>
<p>Have been told that “see ID” is not a valid thing to write on the signature line, but I have personally never tried it and know quite a few people do write that on their cards.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07, I didn’t describe it very well. It looks like this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.studydriving.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/filling_gas_tank-300x210.jpg[/url]”>http://www.studydriving.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/filling_gas_tank-300x210.jpg</a></p>
![http://www.studydriving.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/filling_gas_tank-300x210.jpg[/url]](http://www.studydriving.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/filling_gas_tank-300x210.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p><a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OiIQZmiKQyk/T629wjdc1cI/AAAAAAAAMsw/WTo0e0N9gTg/s200/RubberBoot.jpg[/url]”>http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OiIQZmiKQyk/T629wjdc1cI/AAAAAAAAMsw/WTo0e0N9gTg/s200/RubberBoot.jpg</a></p>
![http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OiIQZmiKQyk/T629wjdc1cI/AAAAAAAAMsw/WTo0e0N9gTg/s200/RubberBoot.jpg[/url]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OiIQZmiKQyk/T629wjdc1cI/AAAAAAAAMsw/WTo0e0N9gTg/s200/RubberBoot.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>Oh, I see! I have never seen those before. It just piqued my curiosity since you said “they don’t even have” like everywhere has them. It’s always interesting to see how things vary in different places… does it make any difference at all in the fumes? It doesn’t seem like it would! My mom always wears rubber gloves when she pumps gas because she hates the smell and is afraid to get it on her hands.</p>
<p>I’ve been told See ID isn’t valid, as is a blank card, but nobody has ever actually made me sign it to accept it. I still see no need to bother. It seems to me there is no good reason to even have the signature line there. And even if I did, like HIMom it would look completely different than how I normally sign receipts… I have one signature for very important documents (drivers license, legal docs, etc) and an illegible scribble for those stupid keypads since my signature never comes out right no matter how hard I try on those things anyway. My fiance’s “very unique” signature is always the same illegible scribble no matter what he is signing, but it is identifiable every time and uniqu… nobody else would write those letters that way… which certainly did come in handy when somebody stole his card. The signature of the thief looked like a woman’s handwriting.</p>
<p>Truly shows that gas pumps are regionally. In Florida (never pumped gas in Texas as I didn’t know how to drive then…) they have a rubber circle that covers the gas pump while your pumping versus an accordian thing or don’t even have anything at all!</p>
<p>I love the smell of gas so I don’t mind when I have to fill up. ;)</p>
<p>For the first time in a long time, I’ve read every post on this thread (although admittedly I just scanned those regarding pumping gas and credit card signatures) (of all the times my kids have used my credit cards, I’ve been called once to confirm permission). Gas pumps - all new ones require zip codes especially if you use AMEX. Old ones, no.</p>
<p>And while I will apologize slightly for not recalling actual screen names, I will say that the poster who never felt supported as a child MIGHT have a tendency to over support/helicopter/Snowplow. Not that they will, but I do think that sometimes we try very hard to prevent our children from being hurt the way we felt we were.</p>
<p>I also think that helicopter parents and snowplow parents don’t really recognize the tendency in themselves as much as they can see it in others. We rationalize the behavior on some level so it’s not as bad as the extreme examples we read about in articles.</p>
<p>I learned at some point that when my kids called to rant, sometimes they just need to rant, unload before going off to enjoy the rest of their day. But I have to agree that some lower, middle and high schools are set up to empower kids to advocate for themselves while others practically require parental intervention just to follow the law! I think this has a lot of bearing how helicoptering or snow plowing parents tend to become later on in the kids life. I liked going to conferences, but my kid’s private school required kids attend as well. Left a lot less to discuss after the meeting. :)</p>
<p>As for rationalizing our own behavior:</p>
<p>I will admit here that only one time did I perhaps cross the line to snowplow/intense helicopter with a kid of college aged. S was very unhappy but nothing of which I could do anything about (or really, even advise!). Our insistence was that before he made any rash decisions (transfer etc) he had to go and speak to his advisor and get some advice. I then wrote the advisor saying I was not telling S I was writing as he would likely kill me, but that I felt he was struggling and if he (the prof) could take a few minutes to inquire beyond the schedule concerns, I’d very much appreciate it, especially because we were half a country away and I didn’t really know the degree to which I should be concerned or if it was typical angst. Their conversation turned into a three year mentoring of my son that I was beyond grateful for. Over the next three years, I wrote three more emails…. two to the professor: one to ask him to join us for dinner during parents weekend (so much fun!) and one for making a profound difference to the life of my kid shortly before graduation and one to the president of the university extolling the virtues of this rock star professor. Was this snowplowing? </p>
<p>In my mind I was just giving the professor a heads up that there might be more going on with this kid than meets the eye and I was only asking him to look. If he had written back to say, yes kid was unhappy etc, maybe I would have done more. But his note back was he met with S, got some things straightened out for him and he’d seen it before and all was fine. Maybe I just got lucky that my S had picked a really great guy as advisor. But I admit I wrote the initial email mostly because I knew my kid was very unhappy and in a world where unhappy kids do stupid things, I just didn’t want to ignore what might have been a very big red flag. </p>
<p>I have three kids (29, 23, 20) and each one has required different parenting. My oldest was a chatterbox, telling me far more than I ever wanted to know, the second (S) learned to throw me bones so I didn’t go digging (and provided a preemptive truth to mischief that was sure to come to my attention) and the youngest was/is a vault. It is just her personality. But I just can’t see why a parent would call about college grades, roles in performances, get involved in job interviews, managerial reviews, mortgages (even in co-signing) and a host of other things that I mostly just told my parents about after the fact. </p>
<p>But I can also see that my own parents didn’t even have the tools for easy involvement even if they wanted to. You had letters - real honest to goodness get out a stamp and wait three days for receipt kind of letters - and you had phone calls with no answering machines in which to even leave a message if no one answered. Perhaps in that ability to take a breath or count to a proverbial 10 - things just never seemed so urgent and it seemed to work out.</p>
<p>I got cracked one time in Jr high… this stupid teacher thought paddling was the was to get chatty students to stop talking in class or something. It was the only time I ever saw my dad sit in the principals office, and it was the only time I ever heard him utter the words if you or anyone in this school ever hits my child again, you will hear from an attorney. Yes, I was in the wrong, but not THAT wrong! Thanks Dad!</p>
<p>What snowplow parents fail to recognize is that in the end, they do their children a grave disservice since the kids learn that there’s always someone to bail them out. When they were younger, I have erred on the side of letting my children face the music (the final grade of B instead of the A because their papers were late), rather than making a fuss with their teachers or principal. Now, as a college sophomore, DS caught the flu 5 days before finals this fall term and I had to bring him home from the university because he was so ill. His final paper was 1 hour late for his English class. My response when the final grade was B+ instead of the A he had had all term? “DS, the paper was assigned 7 days before it was due. Had you begun writing it immediately, you would not have been late.” He agreed and is moving forward with new resolve about time management. Sometimes the school of hard knocks is the best school to attend.</p>
<p>I see too many of these parents. I think a healthy relationship between parent and child is essential. A child should be able to ask for advice without a parent stepping in and taking over.</p>
<p>This is a great article!</p>
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<p>Are we related?</p>
<p>My line was always “You should have finished that a day in advance. What if the power goes out tonight?”</p>
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I don’t really agree with this. I know my kids normally had more work than they had time for. They had to do a lot of time management to optimize their effort. D2 would tell me, “I already have a high A here, and a B+/A- in another class, so I’ll need to put more effort into this course for next few weeks.” or “I have a prelim in this class tomorrow, so I’ll start on my paper for the other class until after the prelim.” It is no different than when we are working, we need to prioritize what we work on first, and if/when there is an unforeseen emergency then an extension is needed. I have to say, at my kids’ very large uni, a few times when D1 was very sick her professors all gave her more time to turn in a paper or complete a test. D2 also said it depends on your relationship with your professor. If you show up for office hours and go to every class then they are more forgiving when you need an extension.</p>
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<p>That line of thinking’s only valid if the student in question only had that paper or one-two other assignments and no ECs or other obligations and has little/no stress. </p>
<p>If he was like most students taking a decent load or maxed load like I had most semesters, starting the paper immediately is often not realistic. And that’s not taking into account the time needed to plan, research if applicable, organize, and outline the paper before writing it. </p>
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<p>Depending on the college and professor, you sometimes don’t need to go that far. </p>
<p>I’ve found that most Profs at my LAC and at a few friends’ graduate programs, Professors are willing to give generous extensions even if the real reason was non-emergency or illness related and waited till the very last minute to make the extension request. </p>
<p>The only times I’ve had asked for an extension during undergrad were due to an illness hitting me in the last month of the term. I was approved by the Professors and dean without any fuss. </p>
<p>My friends in grad school had the same experience and got them despite not giving emergency/illness as the reason for asking.</p>
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<p>Interesting that so many posters here report being asked for ID to complete a credit card purchase. Merchant agreements with major credit card issuers do not allow the merchant to refuse a transaction if ID is not provided. In other words, the merchant can ask for ID, but if the customer can not or will not provide ID, the merchant must allow the transaction anyway as per the agreement with the card issuer.</p>
<p>[No</a> ID Required for Credit Card Purchases](<a href=“http://credit.about.com/b/2011/05/21/no-id-required-for-credit-card-purchases.htm]No”>Can Merchants Require ID on Credit Card Purchases?)</p>
<p>I don’t think that I have ever been asked to show ID while making a credit card purchase, and if I was asked I would refuse.</p>
<p>I got accused of being a helicopter with a snow plow at the airport this week! My 18-year-old son has bipolar disorder and also a bleeding disorder that requires a very expensive ($20,000, paid for by the state), liquid medicine and syringes. He was travelling alone down to Florida. He had never gone through security with the stuff, and I wanted to make sure he had no problem. The airline employee happily gave me a gate pass. I handed it to the TSA agent. She pointedly looked at me, then to S (who is 6’-1" tall and 240 pounds), and back at me. I explained that he’s 18 and I wanted to make sure his meds went through OK (I didn’t mention the mental illness - maybe I should have). She GLARED at my son and said, “You’re an adult!!!” Then she proceeded to shake her head “no” the entire time she was processing my gate pass and his boarding pass. I was so mad! I felt like screaming at her, but I took a deep breath and said, “Have a nice day!” when she was finished (with no sarcasm). Now I know I should have talked to a supervisor, but I guess I was stunned by her attitude. I did mention it to a woman on the other side of security. She said she would pass along my message.</p>
<p>When I got home, I filled out an online complaint form on the TSA website. I got an email back that they will send it to our airport. I told them that just because somebody LOOKS like a healthy adult doesn’t mean he or she doesn’t need help. So I’m hoping I at least cause the agent a little aggravation.</p>
<p>The funny part is that another agent told my son just to leave the meds in his carry-on bag. That conversation was out of ear-shot of the people looking at the baggage. They didn’t even ask what it was, but passed the bag right on by. Odd!</p>