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.
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It's Not All Mary Poppins 
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…