Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Complaint Department is Open...

Yes, it is. Except I don't have that much to complain about :)

Just so tired.

Head is just a low grade every-now-and-then ache.

Tummy is upset but that's from side effects from the anti-nausea pills.

And will wonders never cease, I haven't needed an oxycodone yet. Shock of my life!!

I guess I'll have to tell you about the concept of the "complaint department" and how it came about. I was reading a book by Linda Greenlaw about growing up on an island off the coast of Maine. Her family fished and caught lobster for a living. Anyway, her mom was a very pragmatic soul and had a daily "complaint dept" set up for an hour every day or so. She'd listen, fix boo boos and generally shower the kids with attention for an allotted amount of time. I jumped on this idea.

So my Steffie (and now Jackie) lead the world in the drama queen department. Every day, I get (or used to get) Stef from school at 3 p.m. and we'd open the complaint department until 4 p.m. One hour a day and that was it. If you were gushing blood, cut your arm off, or if something caught on fire, the complaint department would open outside of this time frame. However, it wouldn't open for mundane bickering and whining.

So this really worked for us. It was set time to hear about her day, what was bugging her, just simply getting in close touch with her every day. Now the funny part is that Bill picks Stef up from school quite a bit now and he seems to feel the complaint department needs to open up when Steffie arrives on the doorstep, not simply the car.

:)

I guess he's telling me he doesn't want to assume responsibility for the complaint department, huh?

:)

2 comments:

Sue in Italia/In the Land Of Cancer said...

Hi Sharon

Thanks for commenting on my blog. As you can see, I haven't spent so much time in cancer world and am busily weighing my options. I am still finding the experience overwhelming sometimes and live in denial alot of the time that this indeed is happening.

So I did read your blog-at least the parts post-diagnosis. (I am very hungry to find out how people deal with this news). I had my last baby when I was almost 38 (now a high school senior). I now feel I am lucky to have seen two of my kids get married and to have been there when my precious grandson was born 9 months ago. I of course, really want to be able to see his cousins that I have been promised will hopefully be around in the spring of 2010. By then I am sincerely hoping that this whole cancer thing will be behind me. My youngest is especially demanding as she has a learning disability but doesn't lead the care that a 3 and 11 yr old does. I am glad that on most days you seem to be able to handle mothering plus all your animal family too. You said that you were a free-lance writer. What type of articles?
Anyway, thanks for sharing your life and I will eagerly read each entry.
Sue

Anonymous said...

You're a rock star.
Thinking about you,
Kathy