So why does this bother me you ask?  Ok, maybe you didn’t ask, but I am going to tell you anyway.  It is not a guy thing over driving a van.  I am comfortable in my manliness which is not harmed by being seen driving the family mobile.  Heck, I drove a Miata for a number of years, so obviously I can take the heat for not driving a “guy” car.  Actually, the Grand Caravan we have is comfortable to drive and has a little pep in it’s V6.

No, what bothers me is the sounds, smells and general disarray our kids create in the vehicle.

Sounds

Yes, the sounds.  I am not sure what all the kids do to cause this, but the van ends up having more squeeks and rattles than my brain can handle.  It is kind of a funny thing because I do not have the best hearing in the world, but I take acute notice to any sounds that are not normal for the car to be making.  This “ability” if we can call it that has been good to me over the years, often helping me catch car problems before they get to be something too serious.  In the family van, my “something is wrong” sensors are in overload with all the sounds.

Today I was driving along, playing the music a bit loud as I am often found doing when driving alone in a vehicle; I do enjoy my music.  I start hearing a buzz from one of the rear speakers that my problem radar tells me is a busted cone in the speaker.  I have been there before, so I have a pretty good idea what one sounds like.  After parking I check it out.  Busted speaker?  No, candy wrapper shoved between the slots of the speaker grill, rattling only with just the right amount of volume and bass.  Yes, only something you get with idle kids riding in the back of a family mobile.

Smells

I am not sure if I need to expound on this one much.  Kids spill things, leave things on the seat and for some reason pill up the food products between any nook and cranny that happens to be within reach.  That food, left in the hot car for any number of days weeks produces the not so pleasant odors that combine for an even less than pleasant smell to the car.  My wife and I do our best to keep this cleaned out and teach our kids to be a bit more careful in the car, but we fight a losing battle.  So, we have the “kids car” smell.  At least it isn’t complimented by the I-forgot-a-dirty-diaper-in-the-back smell as we have never done that before.

General Disarray

Disarray is putting it nicely of course; kids just make a mess.  They leave everything where they drop it, figuring they have slaves (read that parents) to take care of it for them.  I am not the king of clean these days, but I do like a clean vehicle.

Perhaps what gets me more that when I drive the van for a time, that means the kids end up riding in the truck.  Kids in the truck means the truck is now the family mobile, so all the same things happening to my precious domain.  Ah well, time to clean it again anyway.

One of the many lesser known joys of parenthood.

My oldest son is severely disabled, which has always been a difficult thing for me to come to terms with, but for the most part it has become a part of our lives. I still hold resentment for some of the ways his disabilities came about, but you can’t harbor those forever and life continues on whether you deal with it or not. He is a loved part of our family, for which there has never been a question.

We have been blessed with three other healthy children and work hard to be the best parents we can for them. At least we thought thought they were fully healthy. Recently another of my children has been developing some severer personality issues that have started to effect his everyday life negatively. After nearly a year of buying books and trying every possible parenting technique we could think of, we finally started seeing a child psychologist. Within two sessions more drastic treatment has been advised and started this week. It has been crushing to watch him in such emotional pain and need that such measures are necessary. I can only try to imagine what is going on in that little head and hope we can find the right treatment to help him.

As I have mentioned often in other posts, I am a problem solving kind of guy. I like knowing a solution and working towards it. When there is no clear solution to be had and when you have to put the care of your child into the hands of others, there is a total feeling of helplessness that in no clearer terms, sucks. I am not 100% confident in the care he is currently receiving, but there is really nothing more we can do. We have to put our trust into a system that I have had poor results with another child and pray for the best.

So, today, life sucks. I try to come up with a positive outlook on things, and often talking through it and voicing my frustrations. I had some good venting session with my friends at work, which helps me to some degree; at least in my ability to move on with the day. The day really only sucks because I really care about my child and want him to get better. I have to trust in others to do that, and that sucks.

There have been a few people that know something has been going on, so there you have it. No need to worry about our family other than we appreciate concern and look forward to working our way through this. We have a wonderful network of friends that have helped us farm out our other kids while we spend time with our urgent need, and for that we are very grateful. It is at times like this you really learn to appreciate such relationships.

There is always that happy moment you enjoy when your little offspring begins to have the ability to really communicate.  I don’t mean just “no” (which is of course nearly always the first word every learned because they hear it so much up to that point in their life), but really start to express themselves.  The reward is not only that you have raised a child that is apparently capable of expressing themselves in a manner other than crying, but also someday they will hopefully be a contributing member of society.

That moment passes soon after they learn to leave out the pause for a breath between sentences in order to keep your undivided attention indefinitely.

Truly it is a lot of fun to have the ability to actually carry on a conversation with your child.  Given that you have your wits about you and the time to look them straight in the eyes for an extended period of time, the experience can be a pleasurable one.  The problem arises when you are trying to accomplish other tasks, and your child simply does not believe you are paying attention unless you are looking directly at them through the entire dialog.  There may be some truth the fact that you are catching only some of the words in an attempt to split your time and simply guessing at their intended communication.

In order to be sure that you are with them, your child starts to use the “guess what” at the beginning to get your attention.  Once that works, guess what starts to be used repeatedly at the beginning of every sentence; then later at the end, middle and whenever they feel like they don’t fully have you there.  The habit develops, and soon you have more guess what’s then you do actual content to the communication.

I am not sure if it happens more with girls than boys, and I am likely predisposed to think it is girls because I currently have a 6 year old girl that is in the throws of the guess what phenomenon.  Of course I have an eight year old boy that has evolved from guess what to simply saying “look at me” when he doesn’t think you are paying him the proper amount of attention.

I keep reminding myself that improving communication skills is perhaps the most important developmental process a child can go through, so I just smile and casually remind my daughter every so often that the guess what is really not necessary…especially 2 to 3 times in the same sentence.  It has become a laughing point because she doesn’t even realize she is doing it.  Some day I will get the guess what to go, because it really does need to go!

My husband is a hoarder I fully believe he was a squirrel in a prior life”¦he throws nothing away but stashes  it away someplace until he deems it useful again (which BTW NEVER happens).  He has kept every curling iron, waffle iron, blow dryer, CD player, iron and power tool that has ever broken in our house hoarded away like some pirate treasure in our basement and garage. “Never know when I could use a part.”, he has told me on occasion. Every major appliance or electronic item he has kept the box for”¦in case we move as better to pack it in the original carton (we have lived in the same house for 13 years).  Don’t get me wrong”¦I love and adore my hubby”¦he is a good man, great dad and super husband. BUT I am up to my wifely behind in his pile of nuts!

And here comes the real rant”¦the final straw or should I say NUT that broke the camel’s back. My husband I do believe is in full swing of his mid-life male “mental”pause crisis”¦which started a few years back and hit the height (so I thought) with his volunteering to go to Afghanistan two years ago.  After he came back I thought it was all behind us.  Before I get to far ahead of myself let me go back to the beginning and give some details”¦back in the late 80′s we bought a little red sports car”¦a Mazda RX7. Cute, fast and fun”¦we were young and had no kids”¦it suited us at the time. I even think it was my idea. Ok”¦I admit that. We took it with us when we moved to Germany and had a blast hitting 120mph on the autobahn.  But like all good things of youth they come to an end”¦we grew up and came home with a baby and the little red sports car with a burnt out engine. We bought a van and garaged the RX7 (a baby seat wouldn’t fit anyhow). And I thought he’d tinker for a few months and sell it for parts”¦wrong”¦13 years later it is still in my garage. The engine is in the back hatch waiting for my husband to “rebuild” it. I gave him a deadline that he needed to put time into it by his 45 birthday”¦he’s now 50 and it still sits. He refuses to discuss it or listen to my pleading to get rid of it. 

Ok, any men still with me”¦poor souls”¦now tell me this”¦me being a woman”¦if I had a project ah”¦say sewing a quilt for example that I started over 13 years ago and it was still laying all over the dining room table”¦making it unusable for holiday meals”¦company dinners”¦keeping YOU DRY WHEN UNLOADING GROCERIES (ok that is a garage issue) would you”¦speaking to any of the brave men”¦.think that a bit inconsiderate of me? Wouldn’t you expect me to finish up and clean it up say before the END OF TIME????

Yes, I “get it” the little red sports car/manhood thing”¦feeling young and all that. But we purchased a house with a garage for a reason and I do not remember it being for his RX7 to decay in (did I neglect to mention that all 4 tires are dry rotted and flat?)   I can think of 100 other more important things to spend money on right now or even in the near future other than restoring a car that only two people can ride in. And to be honest it’s so low I’m getting too old to get into it. And before you ask”¦I rarely spend on myself”¦I do NOT buy shoes, get my nails done”¦I am about as low maintenance as they come.

What am I to do? Let him have his little red sports car and his youth? Maybe he’ll tinker after he retires and I can take up a hobby like pottery? Or maybe I’ll have a mid-life moment and hire a young strong man to work on the car”¦shirtless”¦with tools”¦hmmm”¦maybe he can keep the car.

The second boy is all boy.  He is aggressive, loud, physical and charges into things head on, resulting in many bumps and bruises along the way.  I consider this part of life, and figure I just need to be ready for whatever may happen.  I just cross my fingers and hope we avoid any major breaks or cuts.  This is how kids learn their capabilities, where they end, and why boundaries can be important.  This is hard for some parents to realize, and some never learn, preferring to isolate their kids from ever experiencing consequences.
Last year he was drawn into the Heely craze big time.  He wanted them more than anything, and really could not think of much else.  Fortunately for him Christmas came around, and a pair of Heely’s were under the tree.  He has loved those things, and from our perspective the scrapes and bruises he has gained while learning to use them are par for the course.

I came across an AP article today published our our local rag talking about the safety concerns related to Heelys.  Some doctors are advising that Heely’s are more dangerous than you might at first think, and several stats are quoted of Heely related injuries.  Even one death occurred.

The part that sparked this rant though was the mother quoted that threw her kid’s Heelys after the kid got hurt on them.  Oh my, are these things really dangerous?  I better not let my kid use them.  She also mentions previously throwing out the trampoline after reading about all the related safety hazards.  Gee, you think bouncing high in the air in a small defined space with hard ground around that space would be dangerous?  You might have predicted that problem prior to making the initial purchase with perhaps even a little forethought.
Give me a break!  Kids can get hurt walking down the street!  Their growing bodies cause all kids of coordination problems that make the old cliche of walking chewing gum at the same time a real difficulty.  If I took away every possible recreational activity that my kids could possibly harm themselves doing, they would do nothing at all.  But then, doing nothing would make them fat and lazy, so I guess they will get hurt if I do that too.  I can’t win!

Think back to all the things we did as kids, some we got hurt doing, others we managed to avoid injury by the skin of our teeth.  What you remember most though was…it was fun!  We may not all be daredevils, but as kids we all need some amount of physical activity every day as part of our physical growth and development.  Everything physical we do carries a level of risk.  Remember the old skates we had that you could strap on to your shoes?  Now those were safe…  Those old metal wheels would launch you through the air with even the smallest pebble or crack in the sidewalk.

Even baseball is one of the highest injury related sports, but we’re not giving that up!  Kids gotta live life to enjoy it; and they gotta live life to get good at it.  Protect your kids from the really dangerous stuff, and do your best to advise them on the rest.  They’ll listen sometimes, and other times it will take experiencing the consequences to learn to listen in the future.  That’s life.  Those are some powerful lessons to learn as a kid so you can be a somewhat intelligent adult.  Look around and tell me you can’t identify the adults that didn’t learn their life lessons as kids.  If you can’t, you may just be one of them!

These days we have electronic crutches to help get us through the long distance drives with kids. Sure, we still deal with repeated “how much longer” and “are we there yet” whines from the back seats, but creating quiet distractions is much easier these days. We have the portable DVD player and a video iPod to keep the two middle kids distracted. The youngest has been better than we could have dreamed for such a long drive.

This makes me think back to what it was like 25 years ago when I was as young as some of my kids.

First, we drove a 1974 Toyota Corolla station wagon that my dad paid $500 for used and we did a little work on it to get keep it running. This was the compact style, so no backwards seats in the rear (thankfully). Because there were three of us siblings, that meant we were packed in the rear set, and someone had the “hump.” You know what I am talking about. Knees shoved up high and uncomfortable, or spread to the side causing constant complaints from your brother or sister that you are in “their space.” My family today drives a Dodge Grand Caravan, meaning plenty of seat space, room to spread out the legs and plenty of storage for the luggage.

Next was the temperature issue. I have some discomfort where the AC is currently not hitting the back of my legs, but overall it is a pleasant 70-75 or so in the car while 102 degrees outside the car. No complaints here. Sure, we had AC in that car as a kid, but of course dad didn’t turn it on. No, back then the AC took too much power from the engine, cost too much in gas, and in general could cause the engine to overheat if we left it on too long. Thus the phrase was often coined, “we have 4-40 AC”¦open up all 4 windows and go 40.” So, this meant we sweated our”¦well, let’s just say it was hot and miserable. Long vacation driving trips in the summer were usually dreadfully hot. Along with the heat, with the windows open driving 60 was also loud and headache forming. I am sure we contributed to the headache factor in other ways as well.

Here is one to add to that whole mess. I remember as a kid going on a scout trip that required a few vans to transport kids and gear. I happened to be in van that was not only sans-AC, but also had problems overheating when going up long hills. The only remedy was to turn on the heat, full blast when going up the hill. That’s right, on top of the already sweltering heat from outside, we had to turn on the heater to pump it away from the engine directly into our hot box. Needless to say, we looked like a bunch of dogs with our heads out the window and tongues out traveling down the road.

Now back to the distraction topic. My kids get the luxury of surprise toys, games, books, and some added electronic time wasters; they have it easy. My parents did the old fashioned car version of just some books and homemade travel games to keep us occupied. I have nothing against what they did, in fact we still throw those in the mix, just that they didn’t last all that long. Halfway into the trip, if we were lucky, all that was boring and we were looking for something more to pass the time. We still deal with the kid boredom, but I swear by the ability to show movies; it simply just passes the time. Definitely a luxury. Definitely just plain awesome.

Here ‘s another big difference, the speed limit. I know that 65 and 75 mph is not as fuel efficient as the old standard of 55 mph. Guess what, even the semi-tree hugger that I try to be I’ll give up a little fuel economy to get to the destination faster. Shaving off an hour or two from a long trip makes a huge difference. Don’t believe me? You must either a) not have kids, or b) have kids much older now and your memory is failing!

Here’s one difference that is admittedly “better” in the sense of safety, but was nicer before: seatbelts. We are stringent enforcers of our kids (and us) always wearing our seatbelts. It’s simply not worth the risk. Back as kids we were much looser on this necessity. We wore them, but we also took breaks while traveling to stretch out or get things out of the back. My wife remembers driving in the family VW Vanagon on long trips were kids would take turns sleeping on the floor. Now that could be nice, but I can’t bring myself to loosen up the seatbelt rules to let it happen.

Ever had sick kids in the car? Now that is a joy of all joys. Avoiding the gory details, along with a whiney, upset kid, car sickness is a mess that we would all be happy to pass on. Nothing beats the persistent odor of spew permeating the car for hours after the event as well. We have gained some wisdom from past experience and include a “sick bag” near the kids”¦just in case; especially when traveling anywhere winding roads.

At this point I have to give myself a virtual pat on the back; there is one way I am different from the “old” generation of guys. I can handle taking frequent stops to make the ride more do-able. Jeff Foxworthy, among many comedians, has a great bit about guys and their need to make record time from point A to point B. I like to get to the destination as quick as the next guy, but I also am willing to sacrifice a little time in the interest of empty bladders and happiness. We plan strategic park visits along the way for kids to stretch their legs and work out the wiggles. See, we men can learn some things.

These are just a few differences I can remember between traveling in days past and now, but I am sure there are many, many more. I am thankful for the improvements, believe me. What can you remember from days gone by that was a pain or simply unbearably difficult?

I have always said that if you really want to get to know someone, travel with them.  This is particularly true if you go camping with someone – their true personality comes through.  When you see someone first thing in the morning prior to their routine that makes them at their normal self, you get to observe who they really are.  Plus, when you spend more than passing time with some, now seeing them for most of the day and night, you see people both during their highs and lows during the day.
Fortunately the friends we were with are pretty even keeled; but they do have a teenage daughter that has given them troubles in recent years.  When I say troubles, a little more than the typical rebelliousness that all teenagers seem to try out at some point.  For the most part, the most difficult times seem to be behind them, but who knows.  She still has to make it a point to do the opposite of what her parents say or want, just to show she is in control.

The parents let her bring a friend along on this trip, likely hoping it would make the event a bit more fun for everyone if she was in a better mood.  For the most part this worked, so good planning on their part.  On the second day, all the kids were having fun playing in the lake that was all of 100 feet from our camping site.  This is in southern Utah, so the weather was hot and the sun was beating down on us.  We had all the kids lather up with the sunblock lotion, but the two teenage girls decided not to put any on.

This was a conscious and vocal decision on their part.  In their minds, they didn’t need it and their parents were treating them like kids by telling them they needed to do it.  Both parents kept reminding the two girls throughout they day that they were getting burnt, and they really needed to put on lotion or get out of the sun.  The responses always ranged from “whatever” to “leave us alone” in their ongoing act of defiance.

By nightfall, the tune had changed.  Now feeling the effects of the heavy duty first degree burns, the girls were continuously moaning about their pain.  Not only did they feel the need to remind us of how much they were hurting, they were blaming her parents for being so irresponsible for not having brought aloe vera lotion to treat their burns.  No amount of reminding them of the day filled with warnings of the consequences of not wearing lotion could break through these thick teenage skulls.  This was clearly the parents fault, and they would hear nothing different.

I have two very young little girls, and this weekend scares me at what I future I have to look forward to!  I have an 8 year old boy going through a very defiant stage right now, and I see my 5 year old girl taking mental notes and at times trying to imitate him.  I try everything I can to not feed the defiance and hopefully shape a rapid passing through this phase in hopes it doesn’t stick.

Yet, I still wonder, no matter what I do is there no hope?  Am I headed for the senseless teenage acts of defiance regardless of my efforts?  Please, tell me it isn’t so!

First let me tell you the brief story. My wife and I have a 6 month old son and we have been using Pampers Swaddlers diapers since he was a newborn. We absolutely love them! They don’t leak, they stretch when he moves, and they fit him like a glove.

The last month or so, we have found that one out of every 20 or so diapers have a serious flaw where the left tab snaps off as you are trying to attach it. And if anyone has ever had a little boy, I’m sure you know the dangers of leaving things, let’s say… uncovered.

Now that I have your full attention, YES this happens almost every time a diaper tab breaks. Well today, I finally had enough. After several tab snaps from several different bags (and lots i’m sure) I went to the Pampers site and sounded off by means of an email containing pics and demading some answers!

Here is the actual email I sent:

———–Begin Email ———– 

Hello,

My name is Peter. My wife and I have been using “Swaddlers” since our son was born… he is currently almost 6 months old.

We love the Swaddlers however, it seems every 20th or so diaper, the tab breaks off on the left side. I have pictures uploaded so you can view this.

http://www.camdensplace.com/images/swaddlers1.jpg
http://www.camdensplace.com/images/swaddlers2.jpg

Here is the number on the side of the current bag we are using:

7048U011 38 19:18

At first I elected to ignore the problem, thinking no one is perfect and a bad bag here and there is no big deal. However, after dealing with this now for close to a month I am quite annoyed.

We have now purchased a different brand (white cloud) to give them a try, and so far we are not as impressed as we were with the Swaddlers.

Please help to correct this most annoying issue so current and future Swaddlers users can use your product hassle free.

Sincerely,

(contact info)

——–End Email———-

Call it an experiment, call it a moment of exagerated outrage… either way I’m hoping to receive a reply! I will keep everyone informed if I do happen get a reply :-)

 — UPDATE —

I just received this reply…

—————————————————————
Response (RightNow Administrator) – 03/21/2007 06:26 PM
Thank you for sharing your disappointment with our product.  Our goal is to produce high quality products that consistently delight our consumers and I’m sorry this wasn’t your experience.  Please be assured I’m sharing your comments with the rest of our team.

Since your satisfaction means a great deal to us, I’m following up with you by postal mail.  You should receive my letter within the next 2-3 weeks. 

Thanks again for writing.

P&G Team

————————————

I will let you know when I receive the response :-)

Peter
 

One sister for sale!
One sister for sale!
One crying and spying young sister for sale!
I’m really not kidding,
So who’ll start the bidding?
Do I hear a dollar?
A nickel?
A penny?
Oh, isn’t there, isn’t there, isn’t there any
One kid who will buy this old sister for sale,
This crying and spying young sister for sale?

Part of “Sister For Sale” from Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstien

Who here is a fan of Shel Silverstein? Where The Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic were both read to me as a child and I loved the hilarious poems. They are perfect for a kid, and good enough for adults to laugh at as well. A couple of Christmases a go we gave them to our avid reading son, and he has enjoyed them as well.

This, of course, is one of his favorite poems seeing that he now has two little sisters. He can keep the baby, but the 5 year old little sister he thinks perfectly applies to this poem.

Little did I know that one of the poems would fit how I am feeling about one of my sons.

As I mentioned in a previous post, he has hit one of those phases in a child’s life that every parent dreads. He is irrational, losing his temper constantly about the smallest things and generally speaking putting us at wits end. Bottom line, in our little parental attempts at psychological analysis, we think he is in a power struggle phase. He is turning eight next month, and we think for some reason he is now trying to establish some dominance in the house. Part of why we think this is that he does his little traveling show more with my wife than with me. He is a big kid, so the physical intimidation has long since worn off. Not that we overuse physical discipline, but the idea of a spanking carries little concern with him.

Is this what they call the joy of parenting? I think I missed that chapter in the owners manual. I can only hope we can handle all this the right way and he will get through it as a phase. I can’t even imagine right now what the teenage years are going to be like with this one. He is hard headed and stubborn, which unfortunately he comes by honestly.

So I say again, “Do I hear a dollar, a nickel, a penny?”

Ok, seriously I love my kids. There are times I could throw them out to live in the playhouse in the backyard and be just fine with it. Sure, I’d let them in to eat meals, that’d only be reasonable of course. Do you think I would be that cruel? Ahh, I can just imagine the peace and quiet now.

Early bed is also to allow parents at least some time without kids to either have a little quality time or get a few things done around the house that you just can’t do with kids.

Every set of parents has their own ideas on this though.  Some parents like to let their kids stay up later so they will perhaps sleep more soundly through the night and sleep in mornings.  That doesn’t work with our kids.  Staying up late just means cranky kids.  We recognize other practices of parents though and don’t let our early rising kids go bug other homes until late enough that everyone is up.  Some weekends this is worse that waiting to open presents and Christmas for our kids, but they know the rules.

Why is it that other people cannot figure out that our kids are in bed and that calling at a late hour is going to mess up our nice, planned routine?  Sometimes it is people without kids that I figure they don’t have a clue, but other times these are people with kids, young kids even that seem to have forgotten that when you dial a number it makes a particularly loud noise on the other end of the line.  Are they really that clueless, or do they just not care?
Guess what?  When you wake up a one year old after she has slept for an hour or so, she thinks what should have been a full night of sleep was really just a nap, and now I am ready to play for a few hours!  More than once I have been tempted to take my now crying and awake child to their doorstep and invite myself in for the next few hours so the caller can enjoy my situation they have created.

There are some people we know that understand our schedule and don’t call after 8:30 or so, unless it is an emergency of course.  Also, I have done business at late hours with people and have arranged for late calls – with advanced notice I can turn the ringers down or have the conversation on a mobile phone that I can silence the ringer on.  I really just view this as a common courtesy.  We have actually had the “how late to call is ok” discussion with most of our closest friends, and we know how late we can call them and vice versa.  There are others that I have yet to train.

I am pretty straightforward with those that are continual abusers or those that choose to call particularly late.  On more than one occasion I have had someone call as late as 9:30 or 10 asking for my wife – and knowing the call isn’t that important – I have informed them that she has already retired for the evening, can this wait until the morning.

I have heard of many families that just turn their phone ringers off after their “acceptable” time, but there are a number of reasons why I don’t do that.  First, I don’t think I should have to.  People should have some common sense and respect for the time of others.  Second, I have a mother with various medical conditions that I need to be available for emergency calls, which has happened on a number of occasions in the past.  Third, did I mention I don’t think I should have to?

How about wrong numbers in the wee hours of the night?  I have had this happen countless times.  Usually it is some teenage or college kid dialing their significant other for a late night chat.  Word to the wise, if you are going to make a call at that time of night, either use speed dial or take the time to dial the right number.  Tip: turn on the light when you dial, makes it a lot easier.

There are a few select people I am thinking of that call us late with regularity that just can’t seem to get the message.  Of course I haven’t been so direct as to ask them not to call late again, my wife pokes me and tells me not to be rude when she can see a small tirade coming.  I just bite my tongue and let it go on.

I once heard of someone that worked a very early shift at work and would get very upset when others would call in the late evening after he had gone to bed.  He figured out a simple way to curb this situation.  He would let people leave a message and return the call before he would go to work…at 4 am.  When people would get upset, he would simply remind them that they had called during their convenient time which was during his sleep, so he was doing the same.  People wised up pretty fast and the situation was resolved.

I am sure I will just keep dealing with the situation as I have, racing for the phone when it rings at late hours rather than being blunt.  Perhaps I can invite them to check out my blog and let them happen upon this post.  I might actually enjoy seeing them the next time to see if they got the message!