Wednesday, April 3, 2013

A to Z Blogging Challenge: C is for Communication

Communication - we all do it! Especially us bloggers! We blog to express and exchange information, ideas, thoughts...dirty jokes.  And I'll be the first to admit, I LOVE the sound of my own voice! (Refer to Aries post below).  Have you noticed that we all have different ways of communicating?  It's like we each have our own communication mode that is linked in to a particular channel (out of millions of channels).  Bff's are born when you find people who communicate on the same channel as you.  Although, sometimes people change channels and then issues arise and it can be a whole big mess...but I digress...

Minion 1 and Minion 2 go to a fine arts and communication school.  This cracks me up to no end as I still have to telephone in and listen to a 5 minute message in both English and Spanish just to let the school know we are going to the dentist that morning! Email people!! Or at least give me an option button to bypass the Spanish.  When the kids lunch cards are low on funds, the school slaps a blue sticker on them to let me know.  Do you know what happens when you slap a blue sticker on the front of a 6 yr old boy at 11:30 in the morning?  Neither do I but I assure you, the blue sticker is not in the boy's possession when his mother picks him up at 5:30!

Clearly this school communicates on a different channel then I do. I've tried to bridge this gap.  Whenever I get the annoyed phone call from the lunch lady telling me that Minion 2 had to borrow lunch money again, I always suggest that perhaps if she put the sticker in the middle of his back, it might make it home.  I've also suggested that if she set up an email account to notify parents when their kid is low on funds, she wouldn't have to deal with the tone of my voice anymore...which she apparently doesn't appreciate...

I wonder how often this happens in other relationships?  Particularly romantic ones.  I say what I mean but the other person hears what they want...or is just paying attention to my tone.  I'll be the first to admit I can make a marine cry by saying "hello" in a particular tone...it's a gift...from my mother.  Seriously, how often have you wished that the other person would just Stop for a moment and Listen to your words? It's like "dude, if you just turn your channel to 13, you will totally get what I'm saying".  What we don't realize is they're thinking "dude ette, I'm on channel 22, where on creation did you go?"

So today I'm going to really try to listen in the ways that others are communicating with me.  I'm going to try to control that "OMG, you're really annoying me" feeling and actually Hear what is being expressed to me.  Even if the lunch lady calls today...I'm going to try to appreciate how annoying it must be to spend 3 days putting blue stickers on a child and STILL have his lunch card run out of money.  If CW calls, I'll try to speak British snarky.  If my mother calls, I'll try to speak crazy.  If the hEX calls...hey, Evil Twin, can you babysit my phone today???

Communicate! It's truly worth 1,000 words!



20 comments:

  1. Very funny way of addressing this problem. I've noticed at work some people are email people and some people are phone people. I try to communicate with them on their preferred medium to get things done faster and easier.

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  2. Hmm... I can relate to your blog. I feel this way daily with the various personalities I encounter throughout my day. Cafeteria people have had the reputation of being a little wierd and hard to communicate with. I was affraid of our cafeteria ladies as a kid! Maybe it's the hairnets that places to much pressure on their brains, not allowing them to think clearly! Is it possible to set up the Minions card on an automatic refill rather than having to manually refill the funds? The only thing I can say about my romantic relationshipp is the communication has switched to an off channel periodically while our minions are small. There is more discussion about boogers and shit than anything else. Usually by the time they are sleeping we are too tired to speak or do much of anything...

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    1. Wait until your kids are older, they'll start talking to you about their boogers, farts and burps!! And if either one of them says "here Mom" ALWAYS look before you hold your hand out to accept!! Good Twin advice!

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  3. Lolz at the lunch funds sticker anecdote. Sometimes you wonder where these wacky ideas come from.

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    1. Yesterday my daughter came home with the blue sticker telling me that she needed more money. It's obviously an effective communication tool for 9 yr old girls!

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  4. Thanks! Good communication is essential to life success. :)

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  5. Really well written and has made me think about how I communicate with different people! I'll be back tomorrow! Awesome!

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  6. Food for thought expressed in a humorous way. Loved it.

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    1. normally we like to share our thoughts with a glass of Merlot but it's a little early... ;)

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  7. OMG!!! LOL! No, I will not babysit your phone!!! (
    But I love you! That still counts, yes?)

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  8. Fun post! We all need to good communication :) I like your Good Twin/Bad Twim approach. Thanks for stopping by my blog the other day.
    Kids Math Teacher

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    1. Thank YOU!! My daughter was struggling with analog clocks early this week and then viola!! You're awesome blog post yesterday!! :)

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  9. Blue stickers spend their time with lost dryer socks.

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    1. Lol!! I'm actually having a bigger problem with forks! I had 24 originally and I'm down to like 5. I can't figure out what's happening to them but I suspect the dishwasher...

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  10. This is a great post. I love the lunch lady story. I was at a meeting yesterday and someone was complaining about not being able to get in touch with a certain person. Apparently, her email wasn't working and it took over a week to get in touch with her.

    My first thought: Ummm, how about picking up a phone?

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    1. Hmmm, what is this "phone" you speak of? Do you mean the texting gadget? ;)

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Thoughts?