Showing posts with label screaming toddler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label screaming toddler. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

a letter of apology to the lawn service guy

Dear Lawn Guy,

Please accept this apology for my curt tone during your call earlier today. And for the sarcasm. And for possibly hanging up on you. About that - I thought we were done. I, at least, had said everything I needed to say. But I realized as I was slamming the phone down on the counter that you may have still been talking. Again, sorry. Please read the following letter and select whichever answers best fit your mood. I assure you, they all apply.

I know that it is your job to be pleasant and talk to everyone your computer randomly dials. I also know that I don't have to pick up the phone every time it rings. I know what you are thinking.  If it is not a good time then I just shouldn't answer, right? And normally I would agree. But today I answered the phone because:

A. my sweet little toddler has mysteriously gotten his hands on the phone repeatedly and dialed a variety of people, including Daddy at his office and 911. Both of whom called right back, and one of whom who was none too pleased to not have an emergency to dispatch help to. I felt I had to answer it - who knows who he could have called this time - the mayor, captain crunch, barney...

B. my husband was in Cleveland at a football game and if he called I certainly did not want him to miss my complaining joy at being home alone with two hyper enthusiastic young boys.

C. I wished to spread my joy to  whomever dared call my home that day.

D. all of the above.

When you spoke, at great length, about a service that, once you checked your records you could see we had already purchased, I may have been a tad less than sweet in my reply. I was frustrated with having to tell you, again, that this particular service was already scheduled because:

A.  Let's see you spend the day repeating "don't touch that. don't hit your brother. don't tackle your brother. yes, hitting him with that pillow is still hitting. no more juice! milk is all we have. no, milk. then drink water. you know why you are in time out. if you don't want your brother to slobber on froggy then put him up. why did you think it was a good idea to stand on the rocking chair? what did you want from the mantle? did you hurt yourself? did you hurt the chair? no more video games! alex, we don't throw. gentle hands. gentle hands. gentle hands. GENTLE HANDS!", and still be sane.

B. I have wasted far too much time with your company to spend another minute talking about something I purposely scheduled in advance in order to avoid this exact conversation.

C. again, all of the above

I know I asked you to please speed up your sales pitch and get to the point. I would like credit, however, for saying "please". I distinctly remember saying "please". I needed to get off the phone quickly because:

A. my two year old was climbing out of the high chair, over my head, using my shoulder as a stepping stone, with one foot wedged between my right ear and my shoulder and the other firmly planted on the kitchen counter. His little fists were hanging on tightly to my hair, which was the anchor that allowed him to complete this feat. I realize the conversation that followed might have been confusing to you.

"Stop!" "No, not you." "You, lawn guy, keep talking," "STOP DOING THAT!" "Lawn guy, keep it moving! Don't stop talking!"   sigh...

B. My big four and a half year old had spiraled down into "me" mode, as he frequently does when I am on the phone. His repeated cries for juice, (see above), television shows, candy, world domination... they truly are quite distracting.

Again, I apologize. The chaos winding up in my kitchen was not your fault. You could not have known what you were getting yourself into. It could have all been avoided had you just checked your records, but seriously, how could you have known? One thing was clear, however, with the way you held onto that sales pitch and kept valiantly plowing ahead despite my obvious need to wrap things up proves one thing:

you  do not have children. 


Sincerely,

well, you know who I am. I am fairly certain you have flagged my account so all future callers are forewarned.

not one of my better moments!















Monday, September 12, 2011

at least I didn't get another ticket

I had a little run in with a very nice police officer on my way to pick up my big four and a half year old from preschool today. I hate being pulled over. I get nervous, my heart starts to beat too fast and I feel as though I might burst into tears at any moment. I hate it so much that you would think I would just slow down. Which, despite what my husband thinks, I have. I have really slowed down. There are times that I have caught myself so wrapped up in what the boys are doing in the backseat or in having a conversation with them that I am surprised to find that cars are passing me, some not too happy. So I have slowed down. Today was not one of those days...


A while ago, maybe last summer, my oldest son and I were on the way to Amish country for a family "girls and small boys under 4 years old weekend". I was within inches of getting off the highway when I was pulled over for speeding. My son, ever helpful, leaned forward in his car seat and very loudly, but politely informed the officer that the other cars were driving faster than Mommy. The officer, not missing a beat, replied, "Well, I didn't pull over the other cars, I pulled over your mommy. And now I am giving her a ticket."


At least today I didn't get a ticket. As soon as I saw the lights come on behind me I started to shake a little. I just have this thing about being in trouble. I don't like it. It's a weird personality trait, seeing as I am perfectly capable of taking down a store for poor customer service or holding my own when it comes to messing with my kids. But authority is different. You should have seen how sweet and nice I was in all of those immigration offices on my way home from Russia. I knew the laws stated I could travel in and out of their countries with a baby Russian immigrant, but still I held my tongue and bowed to authority. Which, of course, is always the right thing to do when in a foreign country. But back to today.

After a quick trip to the bank located inside my least favorite grocery store, (or my second least favorite, I should say. Walmart tops my list as least favorite places to shop in many categories.), I tied down lovingly strapped my screaming two year old into his car seat and got in the car. I am not driving the favorite car this week so I had to take some time to mess with the air conditioner, which comes and goes in this car. I fought with the seat belt because it is stuck down inside the seat belt thing in the door and so doesn't pull out properly. Which means that when it is finally latched it is so tight that I can barely turn my head to back out of the parking spot.

564 radio stations later my sweetie is still screaming. It would seem that he had other plans for this afternoon that did not include running errands and riding around in the backseat of the car. Maybe he was missing his favorite XM radio stations. Maybe he likes the toys in the favorite car better. Maybe he was just working on his plan for world domination. Who knows why he was screaming. All I know is we needed to get to the church to pick up his older brother like five minutes ago. I swear, I didn't realize I was speeding. And to be honest, I was barely speeding. Barely.


So there is the officer at my window, which doesn't stop my tiny toddler from screaming. The officer pokes his head into the window and asks me if everything is OK, ma'am. Ma'am? No time to worry about that now. Look at this car, officer. There is a screaming two year old in the back seat. There is another car seat, so clearly this family has at least two small kids. There are toys, clothes, books, and crayons covering the entire floor of the backseat. My hair needs washed, there is a  mystery stain on my shirt and I am sweating due to the a/c issue. There is a shoe and a pacifier resting on the dash - where they landed after being launched at my head from the backseat. OK, officer, I do not need a ticket. Clearly I am being punished enough today.


Of course I didn't say any of that. It didn't seem as though the officer had a sense of humor. Or maybe I am just not all that funny. Who knows. Instead I looked around me, mentally inviting him to do the same.


It seems he agreed. Or he didn't want yet another strung out mommy to burst into tears on his watch. After being told to "slow down but have a nice day" he sauntered back to his car. My tiny toddler stopped screaming long enough to strain his neck trying to see where the man with the shiny badge was going. As soon as the officer ducked into his car and was out of sight my little man started screaming letting his opinions be known again. And didn't stop until we pulled into the church, which he recognizes as the place we go every day to pick up his favorite big brother. Suddenly he was all smiles and sweetness. Me, on the other hand, not so sweet. At least I didn't get another ticket a ticket...