Kids and Customers

So it’s 10pm, and I’m doing laundry because, frankly, FEMA could designate my laundry room as a disaster area. Who has time for laundry when my business and “life” (defined today as a well child visit for my five year old, a trip to the store for a Webkinz and a chiropractor appointment for my oldest son) beckons all day long? Besides, what’s more fun, being a Capitalist or folding underwear?  

 

I know what the answer is for me and that’s why I am doing laundry at 10pm. I find laundry can become a form of meditation if you allow your mind to drift aimlessly. I am usually so focused it’s nice to “let go” sometimes.

 

I was in the moment right up to the point when I started pulling Airsoft pellets out of the dryer. For the uninitiated, Airsoft pellets are used in Airsoft guns that all the boys on the street are really into right now. We are surrounded by woods, which lends itself to this activity. It is similar to paint ball—just not as messy. There are clearly established and enforced safety rules. My middle son loves playing it, and it’s fun watching the boys in goggles, bike helmets, backpacks and rubber boots (so mom doesn’t have to deal with muddy shoes) tramp up and down the creek trying to hide from each other.   

 

As a new mom, I remember purposely deciding I was going to raise “Renaissance Men” and not heathen boys, so that someday my future daughter-in-laws would thank me for the obvious effort I put into their husbands. I gave my second son a baby doll to nurture while I was pregnant with my third son. No sooner had he taken this life like doll upstairs then I heard “Kowabunga!” and a thud. He had tossed the baby doll off the loft upstairs into the family room below. I remember thinking “Note to self, never leave him alone with the baby”.

 

Another time I decided “no weapons of mass destruction allowed.” My boys were going to be pacifists if I had anything to do with it. Make love not war, right? I got rid of anything that could remotely be considered a weapon. The next week I caught all three of them using sticks to play war and magnolia tree seeds as grenades.

 

The Airsoft pellets made me think of this experience and smile. The ammo (which by the way is made out of plastic in case you are wondering) found in the dryer was a reminder to me that—no matter how I think a situation should be—the innate personality of the other individual ultimately decides the outcome. You can spin a situation to fall in line with your thoughts, values and expectations. But if your target audience doesn’t buy into it, then you haven’t effectively communicated the message.

 

I try to remember that with all people I interact with… and especially with my customers. Ask your customers what they want. Don’t try to mold them into the image you have for them. Their answer can make the difference between profit and failure!