Our professional and put-together facade. It's one of the reasons why weekends are so precious. And why grown people rejoice over the notion of "dress-down Fridays. Do khakis and sockless moccasins truly make us that happy? Even at their tender ages, they see me putting on the mask that I wear for the world. This past weekend, I took my kids to an indoor water park at a "resort" called Great Wolf Lodge.
To anyone who knows me, I would usually choose a dental cleaning to a trip to something like Chuck E. Cheese , so this was really planned for my kids. Upon arrival, we got settled, scoped out our options, and headed for the water park. They immediately "carp-ayed-the-diem" and went for the water.
I gingerly enjoyed the water in all the ways that one can, without ruining my mascara and hair which turns into a Q-tip upon contact with water.
I bravely did the arms hanging from a rope bridge thing above the pool, hopping from one foam lilypad to the next. We can talk about how sore my arms were in another blog about my delusions of physical strength.
The I went into the wave pool, and perched gracefully in my mind; this is my blog, remember? I bounced along with the waves, participating in the joy with my kids. And then I flipped. And submerged. And when I re-entered the surface, and breathed, I was, in a sense, reborn. Hair: toast. Mascara: the stuff of horror movies.
There was no going backwards now. I went into the ladies room, and washed off all mascara remnants. Business Barbie had gone home for the day. I rentered the indoor waterpark, and enthusiastically, without abandon, became a large and probably embarrassingly happy child for the remainder of the day. My children delighted in my standing under the tipping water bucket with me think Titanic; this is not for the meek. We giggled and sang as we rowed our rafts. We even ate french fries and onion rings as a snack.
Complete and utter abandon. It was joyful. I wonder what would happen if we conducted ourselves in our daily lives without self-consciousness and motive. If we didn't interact with the unconscious goal of appearing smart, groomed, successful, socially acceptable, popular, "cool" Would anarchy break loose? Would we be nicer? I like structure. And I like the confines of civilized society in the most basic form.
But I could do without pretense. Genuine people are genuinely rare. And genuine laughter feels really good. Let your mask drip all over your face and embrace the freedom once in a while. It might be enlightening, and it certainly feels good.
Ask a kid. Thursday, September 17, The Gift of the Mistake. Growing up as a type-A must-succeed kind of person, the idea of mistakes and imperfections were, in my mind, the ultimate in "what to avoid. I recognize that every mistake, every customer or staff complaint, has forced us to look at what we are doing, and find a way to do it better. It has made us view ourselves from the outside.
This is a gift. When one is on the receiving end of a complaint, there are a few options: Get defensive. Shut down. Cringe, but listen. Open up and really hear what is being said, without personalizing it and getting emotionally entangled.
I think 4 is the winner though not always easy! And that element is, in my opinion, an opportunity for us to tighten up our methods and get even better.
Perhaps that's one of the reasons we are consistently voted a family favorite by the readers of Carolina Parent. Last night, I had the privilege of attending a customer service training seminar, initiated by our brilliant first franchisee, Pam Keels Woodyard.
Pam's thinking is that one of the things that has always set RightTime KiDS apart from any comparable service, is that we are extremely professional and welcoming. As a customer of the North Raleigh location, Pam felt RightTime KiDS offered drop-in childcare services with a consistently polished, organized, yet warm and friendly staff and program. She believed in what we do, and how we do it so much that when we offered a franchise opportunity, she wanted in.
Pam was right. And we ran our center that way from the very beginning, because as an actual parent who uses the facility, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted in my drop-in center for my children. Includes Address 12 Phone 5 Email 3. Resides in West Lafayette, OH. Related To Scott Robinson. Includes Address 6 Phone 4. Resides in Salem, OR.
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