Parenting 101: Procrastination

I found a series of Calvin and Hobbes that fits the season just right...

To start off, I've been a procrastinator all my life... I say this not to brag or be proud of it, it's just the way I've been for as long as I can remember. This is an atribute I'm not particularly fond of, yet I put off doing anything about it... I suppose this is the very definition of a paradox.

Anyway, in the spirit of procrastination, Some Calvin...

The Death of Customer Service Part 1

I've written about this before... This past weekend I've come to realize that the decline of customer service has continued it's course unabated. In the period of less than 24 hours we had problems with Pizza Delivery, a drive thru coffee place and Taco Bell. The first situation happened Friday evening.

We had decided to have pizza delivered. As we didn't have any cash in our hand we had to opt for the pizza place that would take our credit card over the phone. I called Papa John's and a teenage girl took my order. She said it would be 30 - 35 minute. 45 minutes later I called to ask about the pizza. She said that the delivery guy had just left with it. After 1 hour I called again. The same, or similar pizza g irl answered the phone and said they've been pretty busy and the pizza guy had just left.

I seem to notice a pattern here...

6 Minuted later, the Pizza guy arrives... YEAH!!! All hail the pizza guy. The kids were jumping for joy, the dogs were bouncing around with the prospect of Brielle tossing 90% of her pizza on the floor.

I tipped the guy on the credit card slip and away he went.

We opened the pizza's and found them both to be luke warm.

I wasn't too pleased, Holly was much more upset.

I called again and got one of the two girls I had been speaking with earlier. Of course they gave use the run around that it was a busy night... yada yada yada... Still that's no excuse for cold pizza. They were going to give us free stuff... As unlikely as that would be to redeem, we chose to have them credit our credit card. The girls decided to blame the delivery guy as he was the reason that the pizza was cold. So we asked that the entire amount be credited back to our card. This wasn't too much to ask...

The girl wasn't sure how to do this in the system so she covered the phone (unsuccessfully) and asked a co-worker. Her co-worker unthinkingly says F-Her. (As you can imagine she said the real deal not the edited version I placed here...)

As gasoline poured on a flame flares up, my wife followed suit. Appalled at the mistreatment by the teeny-bopper, Holly called them out on the comment. She explained to them that she has never been so mistreated in a situation where the business was clearly at fault and then the insulting comments was just the icing on teh cake...

I know what you are thinking. For crying out loud Matt, you live in New York. Of COURSE they are going to be surly and using all kind of expletives.

I took this under consideration and while yes, we do live in New York, this really isn't how people are on Long Island. Maybe in the city, but I live 60 miles from the city...

So putting the fear of God into the young ladies, she did not blame the girl asking the question, Holly made a point to get the managers name who was conveniently on vacation. For now I'm not sure if Holly will contact the manager but we'll see.

I'll save the other two issues for the next entry. I can see the next big training seminars gearing up for customer service training. It's pretty sad that you have to teach people basic human kindness and interaction. Oh, and maybe a touch of work ethic... Maybe too much to ask...

Does anyone remember the days of "your pizza is there in 30 minutes or it's free"??? I guess that gimmic died long ago...

The Joys of Shopping Part 2

As I stated in The Joys of Shopping Part 1, shopping with children isn't all that enjoyable. Since they all have their own personalities, I'm pretty sure I didn't see that option on the order form, they make the experience just that... An Experience...

Since the oldest boy and the girl are of opposite opinions about shopping, they are like oil and water at this age.

The one saving grace is that the trip to and from the store is distracted with a DVD player in the SUV. Thank GOD for that!

Once at the store all bets are off. Sometimes they are great for a while, but eventually they are running around, poking one another or generally just whining about the fact that we are still shopping.

At times Holly and I are driven to the point of Seinfeld's Frank Costanza yelling "Serenity Now!"

There are certain points of shopping that are predictable. The kids love checking out the lobster tanks. The havethe occassional crabs as well. But our favorite store also sports a giant lobster. They vary in size much like anywhere else in the country but recently they've been putting one GIANT lobster in with the rest. This one is generall y between 8 and 10 pounds. To give you an idea of how big this is... Imagine what a normal sized lobster looks like in the tank. Now imagine a lobster with one clow being the size of a regular sized lobster...

Yeah.. I know... huge!

I love my family... We do have a lot of fun together, but shopping isn't one of our best times. To be honest, I don't mind shopping by myself in the least. I don't have to worry about any arguments about what cereal we are getting, whether or not the yogurt is the right flavor... It's somewhat peacful. I then feel for those families I pass with three children arguing down one aisle or another. The poor bastards....

The Joys of Shopping Part 1

Shopping with children... sucks... There I said it! It really does. 90% of the shopping excursions we take as a family are less-than-pleasant experiences.

Why you ask? Well lets put the equation together.

I have a 7 year old boy who, if given the opportunity, would stay firmly attached to any visual device that entertains. Television, Playstation, Gameboy, DVD player... Anything that will make him transform into vegetation, he's in to.

I also have a 2 1/2 year-old girl who loves to get out of the house. She doesn't want to stay home at all. She wants to walk around town, go to the store or just do anything to not be home. When we start going back home, she starts to chant, "No Home, No Home". Which is quickly followed by "Yes Home" from the 7 year-old... Which results in the much anticipated screaming match.

The third, and final, part of the equation is the 3 1/2 month old boy. He pretty much just hangs out. If the trip lasts too long, he lets us know about it. So he's pretty much the neutral party in this.

So we have the Boy who can't stand shopping and will drag his feet and delay the inevitable, all the while ticking off his parents for not listening. Then we have the girl who, not unlike the dogs when they hear the word "food" or "outside", runs and grabs her shoes chanting, "let's go! let's go!"

With this base, I'll leave you to ponder the moments with some Calvin.

Parenting 101: Remembering the good old days...

Jonah has quite the imagination...

Lately he had been playing a lot of video games which then get his mind into the mode of games he would like Santa to make for him for Christmas. It's very cute! Although sometimes that's all he talks about and trying to get his mind focused on other things can be a bit of a challenge.

Imagination is an awesome thing. You can transport yourself to anywhere and be anything with the blink of an eye. There are many mediums that take advantage of peoples imaginations. Books have been around for many many years where television and video games are still infants in the grand scheme of things.

Many people believe that television and video games are the harbingers of death in relationship to imagination. If you try to apply this to Jonah, it's the complete opposite. I keep suggestion that he write all these ideas down so that when he's old enough to start learning to program he can make these games and get himself into a great career. Considering he's 7, the programming for games will change 5 or 6 times before he hits college to learn all this stuff.

I know that if he uses his imagination as a method of making a living he's going to do very well.

In the spirit of imagination, a little Calvin & Hobbes to brighten your day...

Confessions of a fallen Blogger...

I have to admit it... This isn't easy for me... But I'm a BBBAAADDDD Blogger... For all those that have been following my blog, I apologize for not blogging in quite a while.

I won't throw out all kinds of excuses... I could say that my computer died, I lost access to the internet from work, the sun was in my eyes... But truth be told, I just got caught up with other projects... I'm now taking up the torch again and beginning to blog once more.

To those loyal readers, thanks for the patience. For the new ones. I hope you enjoy this blog.

Let the blogging commence...