As a rule of thumb, no LeBaron should ever have a paper route. Waking up early in the morning isn't really our thing. I guess maybe I shouldn't drag you all into this, since Mom and Dad wake up at like midnight every Monday morning to make it to the temple on time.
What I meant to say was, "Bobby should never have a paper route because Bobby has a hard time waking up in the mornings." Tommy can attest to this after attempting to rouse me from my slumber for early morning seminary, as he often resorted to throwing a cup of water on me. Way to start the day off right. Luckily for me, I had an afternoon route for the Deseret News, which I usually got to customers before 8pm.
While the route was my sole source of funding for POGs, Magic cards and fake BMG accounts for Bob R Baron, it was also a good job for teaching me how to be responsible. As much as I joke, Mom really did make sure I delivered papers on time and made sure I didn't watch an episode of Rocko's Modern Life before delivering papers. She also taught me a valuable lesson of standing up for myself.
I still remember the day that the NAC van delivered a whole pallet of papers to our door. As we only had 30 houses on our route, this was surely a mistake. We called the newspaper and let them know of the mistake, but when they returned, the guy who delivered the papers started yelling at mom and tried to make it seem like his mistake was her fault. I remember Mom handling the situation well and kindly telling the newspaper guy it wasn't our fault, but the guy was being flat out ridiculous. So, with that, mom told him that we were turning in our two weeks right then. "We are?" I thought as I looked at Mom. We were.
Mom has always been a very calm and even tempered person, but when she senses something isn't right or that something isn't fair, she speaks out. While I've never quit a job (or someone else's job) on the spot like Mom did, I have followed her example of being even tempered, but speaking up for myself when things aren't right. This has been a valuable skill for me as I've engaged with others in school, work, and church assignments.
agreed. mom can definitely be feisty if the situation calls for it. I remember thinking on several occasions, "whoa - i did NOT know THAT was coming!" when she was handling a situation. it's especially effective because she is only that way when necessary (like when haggling the price of vanilla and boondoggled pens in tiajuana, right?)
ReplyDeleteI thought at first that the post was going to be about subbing for the Nelsons and trying to deliver the papers before Nanny & Charles' wedding when I almost did have a heart attack before I was so stressed, unlike after the wedding when all of the trays crashed onto the ground from the back of the van. Just so you know, Maggie, I never liked those dishes that much anyway. It's why I went to pewter!
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