7 Quick Takes about Headphone Troubles, Wearing Your Seat Belt, and Why My Bank Thinks I Wait Tables

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

My daughter's violin recital went amazingly. It was one of those wonderful events that I found myself thinking about over the next few days and just smiling at how it went.

The recital dress and hair.

And it wasn't just me who thought so. After my daughter finished her first piece, the 6-year-old leaned over to and whispered "That was impressive." If you can captivate a 1st grader with classical music for 15 minutes, you must be good. 

Of course, my daughter isn't a miracle worker and by intermission he'd slipped out the door and spent the second half of the recital playing in the gym across the hall.

—2—

My 18-year-old is home from college for the summer! Next week she's going back to work at her job from high school, but this week she's been decompressing from a grueling freshman year.

With all her free time at home, I had grand plans to have her help me finish priming and painting the basement walls and ceiling this week, but I forgot that she's on college time. She'd be happy to help, if only our schedules weren't the exact opposite of each other.

I can work on large projects in the mornings while the kids are at school, but that's when she's sleeping. And her most productive hours are 9PM to whatever unholy hour of the morning she chooses, when I'm also sound asleep. 

Maybe we can set up some kind of a shift work system to finish the basement, and work together that way.

—3—

I wanted to listen to some calming music to unwind before bed, so I borrowed my 17-year-old's bluetooth headphones. Except first my phone wouldn't connect to them, and then they turned off on their own and I couldn't find the power button. So I asked my daughter for help.

"You just have to turn them on," she said.

By now, I was beyond frustrated because I was closer to screaming and punching a hole in the wall than I was to comfortably drifting off to sleep. "Well, how do I turn them on?!"

"I don't know," she said, clearly enjoying having the upper hand. "How do I dial a rotary phone?"

Okay, I get it. I'll stop watching videos like this one and laughing hysterically in her presence.

She helped me with the headphones but they were still not connecting to my phone, so she went to go get a different pair for me. Re-entering the bedroom, she tossed them on the bed and said, "Here you go, Boomer."

—4—

I've noticed that after the kids use something from our kitchen junk drawer, instead of replacing it in the correct drawer divider they just slingshot it from across the room in the general direction of the drawer. At least that's what it looks like to me.

So this sounds like the most uptight thing ever, but I borrowed a labelmaker from our library and labeled the compartments in the junk drawer.

I got the idea from The Minimal Mom, who said in a video once that her son asked if he could label the junk drawer one day and she said sure just to keep him busy, but then it stayed organized after that because everyone started putting things away in the right place.

We'll see if this works.

—5—

I was in the lobby of our local auto school, waiting for one of my children to get back from taking the road test to get their driver's license. 

Another mom waved her son out the door for his test and then turned around and said to us "He just gets so nervous. But I told him he'll be fine as long as he remembers the basics: use your blinker, wear your seatbelt—"

"The right way," added the receptionist.

"Excuse me?" I asked. "How do you wear your seatbelt the wrong way?"

Completely serious, the receptionist told me that some kids will get in the car for their road test and put the shoulder strap under their arm or behind their back, and fail immediately before they've even turned the key in the ignition. I could hardly believe that some parents were really letting their kids drive around like that, but she swore she'd seen in multiple times.

My kid ended up failing their test that day, but I suppose it made us both feel a little better to know that at least they made it out of the parking lot first!

—6—

Phillip and I have been wanting to switch banks forever, and the first step was to go open new checking and savings accounts. We made an appointment with the bank clerk and once we were in her office, she started asking us all the standard questions: name, address, and so on.

When she asked what my occupation was, I said "Homemaker."

She looked up from her computer and asked "And what were you before that?"

I stuttered that my last job was a part-time job 20 years ago.

"Okay. What was it?"

I said "waitress," she wrote it down, and then we moved on with the questions. But I kept thinking about it for the rest of the day.

If I could go back in time and hadn't been caught off-guard, I would have asked her why 'homemaker' wasn't on the list of occupations. It makes no sense. First of all, that is my occupation. I realize that I don't receive a paycheck, but how is the name of the company who issued my paychecks in 2001 relevant to my current financial profile?

So anyway, I guess I'm a waitress now. My kids are going to have to start tipping better.

—7—

The change of seasons means that all my kids need new clothes, so I took a few of them out to do some shopping. 

It was a pretty successful trip, meaning that we found close to half of what they needed, and I saw a few things that just made me laugh:

The only reason my son didn't get this is that they didn't have it in his size.

We weren't looking for a shirt covered in dabbing ghosts, but I hope someone out there is.

I'm only a few more shopping trips and a big Amazon order away from having all the kids appropriately clothed for spring and summer.

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