Jul 18 2008
The Joys of being a WAHM
The phone rings. The lady of the house who has now mastered the art of changing hats at the blink of an eye is not sure which role she’s gonna assume next. That of a friend, family member, architect, consultant or a pre-sales techno. While she takes a quick look at the caller ID, the 13 month old toddler who has been keeping herself busy by practicing climbing up and down the couch, squeals in excitement, on yet another successful climb. A quick decision is taken to let the call go to voicemail. Two minutes later, the voicemail is played. Production system broken! Need help now!
There is this stay-at-home, naughty and audible toddler in the house, so the lady only takes scheduled calls from clients. There is an unwritten rule in the house for the husband to stay home and take care of toddler, whenever the said situation arises. But, every now and then, there are rare events when an unexpected phone call turns adventurous. Must add that the contracts clearly state - no phone support. But..
This day.. the man was out and the lady knew he wouldn’t be back for another 4 hours. No way on earth the toddler who just woke would go back to sleep in the next few hours. The lady straps the toddler in the high chair, plays Barney with just enough sound to reach the toddler’s ears. She then moves swiftly to the other corner of the room, sits cramped in between the dining table and the futon, with the wi-fi enabled laptop in hand, ready to take on the issue.
Returns the customer’s call and without any further delay, they kick start the debugging. Close to where the lady is sitting, lies this talking car wash station toy(given by a friend). This one is very loud and has no volume adjustment control. The best part, it has a sensor-based trigger. Supposedly when the toy car passes through the car wash station, it says something like - Cars coming through, watch out. Followed by an Elmo’s giggle. And many other such things.
This time however, there was no car to be found anywhere in the vicinity, nor was there any hand movement below the sensor. Yet, it suddenly started talking. Just in time. Lady fumbles to the customer, reaches the toy, frantically searching for the on/off button. While there was a mute button right in the communication instrument, lady decides to mute her thinking capacity instead and fiddles with the toy, triggering the sensor left, right and center. Until the sensible person from the other side asks if everything’s okay. And that he will call back in few minutes.
Oh Wow DD - how do you do it! Must be stressful! Hats off to you!
LOL! But I do admire your juggling act and for the same I salute you.
Hahaha..hilairous situation to be in! So what did you tell the client what was it?
Only you can do it honey!!! I am in awe. I freak out if the kids are anywhere in teh vicinity when I am taking on the phone. I hide under the table if I have to talk to credit card company insurance…etc.
LOL!! That sums up pretty much a “work from home day”. I keep negotiating with my daughter in whispers and she would loudly say “mamma , I can’t hear you what are you doing?”!!!!
Kudos, double kudos, triple kudos. I have a hard time working for 20 minutes at home with Chip around! How do you do it? I know. Nerves of steel
Its women like you, go-getters, problem-solvers, never-say-die kinds who are such an inspiration!
This was so funny and so cute!! And u have added one more fan to the list
hehehe…hats off to you ! Reminds me of a few years back when Bugsbunny was a toddler and I had to give a phone interview from inside of my wardrobe !!
Joyous indeed
But seriously, you are an inspiration
wow!! yoi go girl!!
cheers!
abha
Kudos, girlfriend. Maybe you might change the world - think about it - it might become ok to hear Elmo in the background when taking phone calls … One step at a time. Way to Go!
ps: saw the name in Femina!! V V proud!
cheers!
Oh my God ..you are good in managing such situations yaar ..I cannot even attend a call from friends peacefully with Aryan around
All: You’ll are such confidence boosters. Where were ya’ll all these years?
:)
Okay, but seriously, it’s kind of stressful when you start doing it. After a while, you get used to it. Also, as I said, these are very rare situations as my active working hours are late nights. And we mostly do email/chat support. Mornings are mostly spent on “thinking/ideas”
I prostrate myself in your general direction, DDMom! I was already a fan and now even more so.
I cannot work when P is awake, as I mentioned he keeps tugging at me when I try and it’s impossible to carry on a professional conversation in all the ruckus. So I have resigned myself to working when he takes a nap and into the wee hours of morning. And the fact that he sleeps late and awakes early, doesn’t make things better.