Mother and the Last-Minute Request: A Fable

Today I took a phone call from an irate mother who was desperately looking for a book (Titanic: Coices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson).  Why exactly was this mother so angry?  It was hard to tell through the copious yelling, but it sounded like her son had waited until the last minute to tell her that he needed a book for school.

That was an interesting phone call.  As I'm looking in the catalog to be sure that the book is currently on the shelf and not checked out to a child who prepared for his assignment in advance, all I can hear are phrases like "This is so inconsiderate of you," and "You need to tell me about these things ahead of time, not when I'm trying to get ready for work."  There is very little in the world sadder than listening to a parent berate their child like this in public.  While the kid probably did deserve a good talking too, I truly wish that his mother had waited until after she was finished with the phone call.

Thank goodness we had the book in stock.  I hate to think of what would have happened if we hadn't been able to provide them with the book they needed.  I can only imagine the yelling that news would have spawned.

The moral of this story:  Do not scold your child harshly where strangers can year you.  It makes you look like the villain, not you child.

The second moral:  When on the phone with someone, please move the phone away from your mouth when attempting to have a side conversation with a third party.  Better yet, wait until the phone call is completed to speak to anyone else.  Failure to do so only leads to awkwardness.