Do you hear the words that are coming out of my mouth?

There is an abosolutely hysterical Sesame Street video called "Elmo's Sing-a-long Guessing Game". When Nick was little, we watched it all of the time and then when Michael came along, we were thrilled to have a reason to bring it back out again. One of the songs on it talks about the face - all of the parts of the face and what they do. Ears are considered part of the face. It is painful when people do not use their ears for anything else but to hear their own voice.

I had a customer call me early in the week to say that her child would not be at guitar class and could she then sit in on another. So I told her yes and then gave her the other class times available. They only meet on Thursdays. "Well, I can't do it on Thursday", she tells me. "That's the only day he teaches," I tell her. "So can I re-schedule with the teacher to sit in on another class?" she ask. "Yes," I tell her again. "When do they meet?" she asks. "Thursdays," I tell her and then give her the times - again. "But Thursdays don't work for me," she says. "Well, you can call the teacher and see what you can arrange," I suggest. This round-and-round conversation went on for five solid minutes where I just continued to tell her to call the teacher because he is only here on Thursdays.

Today I get a call from another mom with a concern about a class. She goes in to a very lengthy description of what she is not happy with and then I ask her "Have you spoken to the teacher about this?" "Well, no," she said. "You really need to discuss it with the teacher because we do not dictate how the classes are to be run..." "I know, I know," she interrupts, "I was just giving you a heads up." And then she went on and on as if I hadn't said a word. I explained our policy to her when I could get a word in and she spoke right over me again as if I hadn't said a word.

People, we have ears for a reason. How about putting them to use once in a while and actually listening to the answers people give you. The answers that YOU asked for.

What a novel idea!