1st Dance Recital

To dance or not to dance.

A year of Saturdays practicing, countless dollars spent on practices, costumes, shoes and tights, a year of mommy and daddy fighting over the value of spending dollars on practices, costumes, shoes and tights. And then the recital...

Our little girl who was destined to be a dancer was excited every Saturday morning. She was one of the most focused in her 4-5 year old class. She practiced and had fun. Maybe had more fun than practiced, but I was ok with that. Unlike many of her peers she actually wanted to be there - I felt a sense of pride knowing that the money we were spending was for a good thing. We weren't one of those parents trying to make their daughter want to dance, she really did want to and she was having fun.

But then the recital came. Down at TPAC center, no small auditorium for this group, they went all out. Complete with dressing rooms, and seats with tickets (which we had to pay for) and a big stage with a lighting system that scared the begeezes out of my little girl she was going to get a taste of the big time. The problem with the big time, was that it was a little too big. She was terrified. She didn't freeze, but she absolutely refused to talk about the performance until about a week after. Even when I mentioned getting together with her little friend to put on their costumes for "fun" she said that would not be fun and the costumes weren't that pretty.

So, what to do now? This activity that we heard was good for building self esteem has taken a bad turn. Now that we get the drill and know what to expect both financially and emotionally, I'm wondering if we should repeat. I worry about her quitting and I worry about her staying in. I guess we'll wait and see if she wants to talk about it more as summer goes on.

The Cost of Doing Business with Big Business

I know its an unlikely topic for this blog. Nothing about the kids...but as a stay at home/working mom, I have had to spend more time than I would like dealing with call centers and other people who are following "procedure" at the cost of service. Whether it is the phone company, airlines, cable company, or furniture store, most every interaction is frustrating at best and in the end I always wonder why we gave them our money.

Case in point...Rooms to Go Kids. We bought an adorable bedroom set for our 3 year old. A set we tried to find elsewhere without success, so we ended up ordering the set online. The earliest delivery date available was 6 weeks after purchase - should have been a red flag, but hey we were ordering for her birthday and the timing wasn't so bad. So we spent our money and waited... Week before delivery we get the automated call. "You are scheduled for an all day delivery, please be home between the hours of 7 am and 10 pm". What? Did they just ask me to sit home waiting for 15 hours? Really? Who does that? So I called the 800 number. Can I get a little closer estimation? I was told they would call the day ahead of time to give us the 4 hour block of time they really thought they would be there. Ok fine...

Day of delivery, they showed up hour 2 of the block of time. Not too bad really, but the 2 men that showed up on our door were not really equipped to be doing this job in the first place. One seemed to be staggering up and down the stairs, physically having a hard time moving the pieces and the other told us that his 2 year old had given him a stomach flu and "oh do you have any pepto I could use?". Thank you so much for bringing your nasty flu into our home which obviously has children!! Call in sick all ready! It took these 2 a full hour to bring in 3 pieces of furniture. The headboard on the bed had a ding on it which they had to get someone over to fix, the mirror broke oh and they used screws that were too short on the bed slats so they weren't actually attached to the bed.

After this annoying experience, the RTG 800# called. A real person for the first time since we ordered the set talked to us and asked about our delivery. While it was nice to speak to a real person, it was an unfortunate time for the call. They did get an ear full and for the most part she did rectify most of the situation, however we are still waiting for the mirror and are again waiting for the delivery. When we called to get a more specific time this time they said that they couldn't call us in advance, but when pressed my husband did get them to at least give us an hour in advance call. But they act as though this is a special and annoying task because it seems everyone just sits home all day long.

Unfortunately pretty much all service calls are similar in nature these days. Anytime a call center is involved they are always following "procedure" and have been trained to regurgitate company policy, but traits like compassion and common sense are oddly missing from the equation. Yet I'm sure the people who run these call centers are also annoyed when they have to deal with poor service, but for some reason the problem continues.

OMG this is Crazy

Is it just me or has this whole acronym thing gotten OOC? Is it that we are just lazy or is this a new language we use to feel a part of a group? How many ways can you incorporate 8 into your text message? That is so gr8!!

I recently joined a group of Disney fanatics message board that shares helpful tips and tricks for planning Disney vacations. I love the board and the positive energy from everyone in the group, but even with my 10 years experience actually working for Disney, I have to read and reread some of the messages multiple times before I actually can decipher what they are talking about. For example, "Can anyone help me? I just made my ADR's for our October trip including LTT at MK, but we are also going to the MNSSHP and I would like another fun dining option for that day - any ideas? We are staying at WL." What???

Is this part of the "texting" generation of lingo? I actually am all for making words as short as possible when sending a message from my phone since its such a pain, but when typing I have to wonder if this new shorthand that makes it easier for the writer has any real benefit for the reader or really saves anyone any time.

I want to buy a boat

This is what our 3 year old said to me today as she was handing me a dollar. "I want to buy a boat.". "What kind?" I inquired. No answer, just "I want to buy a boat".

Kids are interesting, funny and a little crazy sometimes. At 3 our little thoughtful child has been putting in overtime with her imagination. Yesterday she told her aunt that she was wishing for flowers on the trees. Today she is interesting in small watercraft. I want a boat too...