When do you throw in the towel?

I have a bad habit of letting people have one more chance, then one more, then another after that.  It's like the man who draws the line in the sand daring you to cross it.  Then he draws another line and dares you to cross that one.  The effect of drawing the line gets lost quickly.

We are in the process of selling our house and buying a new one.  The house we are in is way too big for us and since Mom isn't here anymore, it no longer fits our needs.  We are three people roaming around the hallways yelling "Marco" and waiting for the "Polo" to find each other.

I work for a home building company that happens to build pretty nice houses.  I bought this one from them about a year before I started working here.  We got a really great deal so we just couldn't pass on it. 

Now that I work for the company, my deal is not so great.  5% off of the base price and upgrades, nothing off the lot premium.  This was my first disappointment as two of my coworkers recently purchased homes from us and made out like bandits with upgrades at cost on top of a discount on the base price.  I seriously considered not buying when I got the news.  Hubby and I talked about it and decided we still needed to downsize and that even at almost full price, this was still our best option. So, I stepped across the first line....

Then we go to make selections and I had a concern about the layout of our shower.  It was like a cave and being claustrophobic, I asked if I could change it up a little.  Suddenly we have a new master bath option for this home and we need to wait for the new blueprints to be drawn - because another customer wanted it. 

The changes were what they asked for and way more involved than my simple request.The new option is drawn, but instead of just addressing the shower, it adds 3' to the rear of the home and I can no longer add the sitting area to the master bedroom because it won't fit on the lot.  Even though I thought the sitting area was important, I was glad the shower issue was resolved and after some more discussion, I stepped across the second line... 

Next I met with the sales person to try to update our contract with all of the new items only to have him tell me he doesn't know where the pricing is coming from and basically accuses me of being dishonest.  I price options for a living. I know what they cost.  I also have all of the pricing details that back up my items which I sent to him and he never read.  I told him I didn't appreciate being called a cheat and told him I was really not happy with the way this process was going.  He eventually apologized and drew the third line...

We crossed this line too only to find out that with the garage we selected, the home still won't fit on the lot.  It is 9" over.  The other customer is 18" over so we are redrawing the plan for them at no charge.  I don't want to take 18" out of the width of my home just because that is what we are doing for the other customer, I want to take 9" out of the width of my home because that's all I need to take out and I am still a paying customer.  I informed them of this last week and now it has been four days and not a word from the sales person or manager as to what we are doing.   I think it's time to stop allowing them to draw the line.

Sporting Parents

I happen to be the parent of a child that is involved in sports.  At first I was coaching Cheerleading which I am not really sure you get to call a sport.  (Don't get me wrong, these girls put in a lot of long hours, sweat and tears into their practices and their job is not easy.)  Now I am coaching Volleyball which is most definitely a sport that involves fewer tears and way more fun.  With a team of 8 girls you would think that it would be relatively easy to coordinate the practices (same time and day every week) and the games (same day every week) with every one's schedules, but that seems to be way more of a challenge than anticipated.

Every week I get a call or an e-mail from a parent - what day and time are we practicing this week?  Same day and time as last week, and the week before and the week before and that I mentioned in my e-mail THIS MORNING....  I actually had a parent tell me they had three girls in sports and they couldn't keep up with which coach belonged to which girl.  Time to stop hitting that crack pipe Mom...

Then we have parents that don't show up with their kids, don't call, don't e-mail and don't return phone calls.   Dear Sir or Madam Ass Hat....we had to forfeit our game because we didn't have enough players.  Was Sally involved in a major accident?  No, she didn't feel like coming today?  I wish I could say "Off the team!", but I can't because then we would have to forfeit more games.  We have 8 players and need a minimum of 5 to play.  You would think that would be easy, but one of the 8 broke her arm the week before our first practice so she's out.  Of the 7 left we have had more than one game where we barely eeked by with our 5. 

As a parent, when you sign your kids up for these events, you are making a commitment of your time as well.  They should have to sign an oath.

I, parent of sporting child, do hereby promise that I will bring my child to all practices and games unless they have suffered a loss of limb or plague.  I will pick my child up from said practices and games in a timely manner so that my coach doesn't have to babysit my child for an additional 30 minutes.  In the event that I am tardy I agree to buy my coach a pony.