FIRST IMPRESSIONS …
“HELLO, IS THAT MARY P?” Ouch. Lordy, this woman is loud.
“Yes, it is.” I move the phone a couple inches away from my stricken ear.
“I GOT YOUR NAME FROM AN AD IN THE COMMUNITY CENTRE?”
“Ah, yes.” I pull the phone another couple inches out. A loud mother is pretty likely to have a loud child.
“MY BABY IS NINE MONTHS OLD.”
Another couple inches. And can I really deal with this volume for the next three years?
“I’LL NEED DAYCARE FOR LATE JUNE…”
My ears are still ringing. My arm is almost straight out. No, I can not.
“AND I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WOULD HAVE ANY SPACES?”
I suppose I could prop the phone against the back of the couch… Or, I could just…
“I’m sorry, I’m fully booked for at least a year.”
“OH, THAT’S TOO BAD! WELL, THANKS ANYWAY! I GUESS I’LL JUST KEEP ON PHONING AROUND.”
“Sorry about that. Good luck!”
“BYE!”
Phew.
5 Comments »
Leave a comment
-
Recent Comments
max on Because I’M the boss aro… Jill in Atlanta on Oxymoron jenny on My frugal heart Zayna on Oxymoron Mwa on My frugal heart RSS feed
Always thinking on your toes, aren’t you?
Maybe she was hard of hearing and could have taught you some of that sign language.
When I talk to my Dad on the phone everybody yells.
When my mother phones I usually leave the phone on the floor for most of the conversation & just pick it up eery now & then to say “uh huh”, “really? and “oh”:-)
Sadly i can’t tel my mother that I’m busy for the next year or so.
Or can I?
I HEAR you on that one.
She’s the last thing you want standing in your doorway at 7am on a weekday morning.
Laura: This is not a new scenario for me. I’ve had a few very LOUD parents in the past, and their children have all be incurably LOUD, too. What I am now is experienced and not desperate for clients!
Peter: Nah, she wasn’t hard of hearing. I was speaking in my usual moderate tones, and she could hear me just fine. She was calling from a cell phone, though, and I know people tend to bellow into those things. Well, some people do. LOUD people do…
JugglingMother: Probably not. Though the system you have seems to be reasonably effective!
Karen: Aha! The other caregiver GETS it. Heh. And at the end of the day, too. And all day long, through the voice of her child. Brrr…