They say patience is a virtue. Then what is impatience? I’ll tell you… it is a pain in the ass. If you have ever ordered anything that will arrive via mail, UPS, Fed-Ex, or Mule Express for a child who knew that you had ordered this you probably know exactly what I mean.
It is 100% coincidental, but I had stopped writing for about ½ hour to do some stuff around the house. Just as I was going to start writing again my son came into my office to ask about something we ordered off of e-bay on Saturday and the conversation went like this.
Son: Did they email you yet? Dad: They sent a confirmation that they received our payment.
Son: Did it ship yet? Dad: Probably not because yesterday was Saturday.
Son: Why not? Dad: They just don’t ship on Saturdays
Son: Will they ship tomorrow? How will they ship? Dad: Probably, and by mail
Son: So when will it get here? Dad: Wednesday or Thursday
Son: Why so long? Dad: Go to bed.
As you all know this is just the beginning because there will be questions every day until it comes about why it hasn’t come yet and pouting because it did not get here by Wednesday because I said it may be here by Wednesday. The UPS driver, Mailperson or Fed-ex driver will be cursed out in 14 year old language because it is their entire fault it is not here yet. And watch out if it does not come by Thursday because there will be temper tantrums all over again.
But why don’t they know how to be patient? The inevitable answer is that we have trained them from early on to be impatient when it comes to getting things. Just think of all the pestering that happens around Christmas when they know there is that gift coming from Santa. Is Santa here yet as they stay up all night in anticipation of the little old fat guy in the red suit bringing them their whatever they wished for on the department stores Santa’s lap. Well, you can open one of Grandma’s gifts tonight and Santa will be here in the morning. So they open that present and still whine for the Santa present.
Think of the other examples; birthday presents, the Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy… blah, blah, blah.
How do we teach them to be patient? I think new have to be deviant and think up of ways that will teach them to wait. Here are a few examples:
Did it ship yet? No, it will not ship until one month from now because they have to make some more.
Why didn’t it come today? Yeah, forgot to tell you the delivery guy called and he accidentally ran over your thing with his truck. They have to reorder and it will be here next week.
Will it deliver tomorrow? Only if the truck driver does not stop at his girlfriends overnight. That would cause him to miss tomorrow delivery.
Take the delivery and hide the merchandise. Then keep giving excuses for a few days until your patience finally runs out with them and you finally give them the thingamajigger that you ordered.
Refuse to order anything ever again!!
Yeah right
Then wait for the next time you do order for it to start all over again.
1 comment:
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at 4:15pm on September 17th, 2008
That was so true. But you do realize that it's not just with kids that there is no patience, it's with the adults too. I'm guilty of that, checking a million times to see where my Partylite deliverly is..... That was great!!!!! Keep writing, I can't wait to see what your next blog will be.
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