The lost art of a phone call

We love Kijiji at our house.  We have found some real gems on there and we use it often.  I post ads to rent rooms at our rental house in Barrie, it has been very successful for us.  I'm don't often have time to sit at the computer and check emails so I make it clear in the ad to please call with any questions and to set up showings of the rooms.  It's easier then going back and forth with people all the time on email and my husband can deal with the phone calls while he is on the road during the day.  Even with that in the ad I still get emails all the time.  Sometimes I email them back and ask them to call us.  What's interesting is that they never call.  It's like they would rather keep looking for rooms elsewhere then actually pick up the phone and have to speak to another human being.

We have also posted ads for my husbands business looking for an employee once in awhile.  We hear a lot from young people either still in trade school or just finished.  Again in the ad we ask that they call to talk about the position and set up an interview.  And again we still get lots of emails.  One guy emailed and I never answered him because we said no emails.  He went on to find our website and send a message through the website saying that he knows we said no emails but he was interested in the job and asked for us to call him to talk about it.  Well young man we won't be calling you and here's why.  First the ad said no emails please call us, you couldn't follow that simple instruction so what does that say about you.  Second we have what you want...a job, we don't want to chase you, if you are really that interested in employment then pick up the phone.  And last, you are applying for a job in the service/trade industry.  You will be talking and interacting with customers everyday, you can't hide behind your emails and your texts, you will have to make contact with other people.

This next generation is so caught up in their tech world will they be lacking personality/social skills because they don't have to interact with anyone?  I remember when I was younger sitting on the phone gabbing with my girlfriends for hours, does anyone do that anymore or are they suffering from carpal tunnel because they text or IM for hours instead?  I hope things are different for my girls as they grow up but I think it starts with me and what will be allowed and at what age.  They might seem uncool to their friends because they don't have a cell phone at 8 years old but they will probably thank me for it later.

Pinterest Gone Wrong

When I cruise Pinterest I usually only pick things that I know are the realm of my ability and a lot of kids crafts.  They always have great Christmas idea and some pretty easy ones that I think to myself..."how could I possibly mess this up!"  Well I can.

The first craft was a Christmas tree and the tree is Mia's hand prints and the lights are her finger prints.  All I had to do was paint the trunk and a star at the top.  Seems easy enough until Mia went right to the top with her hand prints leaving me no room for a star.  I tried to paint one over her green hand print which was a big flop.

The second seemed easy enough too.  Each of the girls foot prints, a simple boarder, some dots and write Mistletoes.  Mia's foot print went great, Melody was not a fan of the paint on her foot so getting her to do a nice print was a  task, and she started to slide around in the process making it not much of a print at all but I pressed on.  My dots got smudged and after I wrote Mistletoes I dropped water on the canvas running some of the letters which you can't see as much in the picture.

I was all stressed over the "imperfection" of the projects and kept trying to think of ways to fix it.  But then I had to straighten myself out and realize the point here.  Did my kids have fun?  Yes!  Then that's all that matters.  They are cute decorations we can put out each year or do new ones each year as they get bigger.  I could be the hovering mom who makes sure the crafts are perfect so they are "pin worthy" or Facebook worthy to brag about your kids.  But i'm not going to be.  

Here are our Christmas crafts in all their glory and smudges.  We had fun and made a huge mess and that's the point of it all!