The times they are a-changin'.

Good for this dad, although I hope he also taught his son the finer points of what's acceptable with service workers (harmless flirting = generally ok; bold advances = tread very carefully and remember that this person is at work and is obligated to be nice to you).

Also, where are all the usual suspects in the I,A comment thread? I feel lonely here. Someone come and post a trolling comment or something.

Good point re: on-the-clock flirting, @1.

Mmmm, Bakery Nouveau...

I'll take other things that didn't happen for $2000, Alex.

I'll say that this is real. A friend of mine that I've known since my freshman year at UW told me that his 15 year old son is gay and I came out to him as well. He said he was fine with his son dating but only other teens his age. We had the 2013 conversation of the "state of things" and he already was on the look out for the "apps" since I personally told him to keep his son off of them since he would technically be jailbait to most guys until he's 18. But he's been a great dad to his kid. When he came out, he just hugged him and said he still loved him.

@4 Why the fuck do you think this is fake? It isn't at all outrageous or unbelievable, unless you think a father can't encourage a gay son...

@7 go away. You're worse than the trolls.

@5 ditto. there's still a weird gulf whereby adults feel that accepting their kids sexuality also means forgoing all other mores about sexual appropriateness. Most 15 year olds are woefully unprepared to be in anything but the most innocent of relationships with their peers, let alone one with a college-aged person.

@ #9

I don't think the Dad was encouraging the Teen to start a relationship with the hot beardy clerk. Just encouraging him to walk up and have the confidence to talk to someone he found attractive. Half the whining of the PUA/MRA/ForeverAlone straight male crowd is that they can't even hold a conversation with an attractive woman (and ignore the ones they don't want to fuck). I think encouraging the kid walk up to an attractive person and hold a civil, appropriate convo with them, perhaps flirt a little, would built their confidence so they're not a stammering, inarticulate moron when they're actually trying to ask someone out.