Friday, December 17, 2010

How to Ruin a Kids' Recital & Lose Customers

Some places of business really need to think about the image their employees convey to the public. My 4.5 yo son had his first holiday school recital today at a local bank. I was so ridiculously excited, and I filmed and took pictures like 'that' parent. I think his whole class and all the parents were excited to see their kids perform, and the kids were just excited to go on a bus to this event. Then trouble struck before the concert even started.

First, let me say that I understand having about 15 four year olds & 15 third grade 'buddies' makes for a large group of kids in a place of business. Add about 20-25 parents to that mix and it's a lot of people standing around in a bank lobby. The question is: if there was a morning group that came, and it's not the first year they've hosted this, why was it a problem for the parents trying to capture the moment to stand in front of, I'm assuming, the loan officers' desks? And why were the employees whose desks they were so rude about it? Now, I stood between two desks, out of the way, and I was still told to move...to a spot in front of a desk! There were no customers banging down the door to get a loan there. In this economy, they'd probably get denied anyway. So why were the employees so rude to the parents?

Because of this incident, I would never bank at this institution and if my parents, who live in town, banked here I would ask them to change banks. More than one parent voiced this as well. So if it is a problem to host cute children singing at your place of business because you don't want their parents there, don't host anymore. It almost ruined the experience for quite a few of us parents.

And yes, I am emailing the bank manager, the principal, and my son's teacher about hosting it elsewhere next year to a place that appreciates it. A place that has more holiday cheer, and doesn't have grinch employees.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Bronchitis & Christmas Carols!

Are you kidding me?!  Now we have a round of viral bronchitis going through our house right after the strep pain.  So now my throat is killing me because of the hacking cough.  I'm dead on my feet trying to keep up with everything and my home....  Oh, my poor apartment is a wreck.  Just getting my son fed and in his winter gear for school makes me want to take a nap. Except if I nap while he's in school, I might sleep through the alarm to go get him!  That would be really, really bad.

In other news, my son has his first public caroling experience on Friday!  I'm so super excited and I cannot WAIT to video tape his first one.  I'm totally "that mom", but without all the ginormous recording equipment that one might see.  Hooray for my Flip Mino Video Camera!  I won it like a million years ago, so it's not the HD model or anything but who cares.  My baby is gonna sing. In public!  Whee.   My mom and I were total choir nerds (now called glee, I guess) and this is going to be terrible singing, but awesome all at once.  Now if only I can get him to unclench his teeth when he sings...or at least not to cough in the middle of a song.




Friday, December 10, 2010

My Holiday Wishlist (meme)

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and GameStop are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

I wish that next year be less stressful and more prosperous, and that my extended family (mom & stepmom) find the year to be less filled with health issues.  Since I'm stuck with our current government, I'm thinking peace and goodwill towards men isn't gonna happen on a national or worldwide level. Oh well.

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?

We usually have our Christmas on Christmas Eve as we travel to see family, and my son goes to his dad's house on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve morning my son still sleeps in and I lay in bed wide awake, more excited for him to open presents than he is.  When he finally comes to my room, we go out to the Christmas tree and he grabs presents all willy-nilly and rips them open while I take way too many pictures to share with family on Facebook.  After that's done, I make breakfast, he plays with his new games and toys, and we both spend the day playing video games together before packing overnight bags for our trip out of town Christmas Day.  Christmas morning is spent on the road traveling!

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

Does a million dollars count?  Then again, I know I wouldn't just use it for myself after paying my debts and making sure we were financially secure.  I'd start helping my friends and family too.  So I guess that's not really for myself!

Ok, single mom decadent wish...I would wish for a full spa day, somewhere warm, with zero talking! Just my iPod and me being pampered in complete non-conversational silence. Bliss.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

We don't really have a ton of money so I'm an expert at this one!  The holidays are filled with snow so we are able to go sledding, and snowmobiling, and our community has a lot of family events that are free so we go to those too.   The local park has a big holiday display set up and we visited that this year too.  The best thing this year that we've done together is make colored paper snowflakes and chains to decorate our apartment. It's very festive here!

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

Whatever new games we got as Christmas gifts were played with together.  Some Atari games, some board games like Monopoly or Scrabble or chess, and when I got older the family let me play penny poker with them.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

Well, I don't let my 4-year-old play poker but we do play go fish and War card games together.  Honestly, we're making our own traditions because we have to travel on Christmas Day, but hopefully they'll become his traditions with his own family.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?

I would take Noah and go on a cruise to the Bahamas or go West to AZ to see my friends there.  Both are nice and warm and have zero snow!

8. Check out GameStop and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?

Ok, I might be the only one not asking for a Kinnect right now (even though I really want one)!  What I really, really want for is:

PSP 3000 Core Pack

Boxshot: PSP 3000 Core Pack by Sony Computer Entertainment

 

A new Nintendo DSi XL red Mario version for my son because he's using the old, old school silver one:

Boxshot: Nintendo DSi XL Red Bundle by Nintendo of America

And I know this seems like a weird wish list item but we really, really want to download some games & stuff from our Xbox 360 and so I'd put a Live Marketplace 4,000 Points on our list:

Boxshot: Xbox 360 Live Marketplace Points 4,000 by Microsoft

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