People Should Pay Compliments, Too...

This is a rant, sorry:

As you know, I work in a store, which is part of a chain, and the chain is part of a very big Israeli retail/discount business, Rami Levy. And I'm going to admit that during the close to six years I've been working here in Yafiz, I've been reported as "nasty" to customers more than once.

It's just too easy for people to find a "higher up" or just call the main office or say a few negative words to someone in the "office" by the Rami Levy cashiers.

Generally the complaints are about my asking that their children stop doing dangerous things like running through the clothes racks. Just the other day a woman, who claimed to know my bosses well, threatened me, because a I had asked her child to stop his shrill whistling in the tiny shoe store where I was attempting to serve/help her and other customers.

After she had finally left, another customer said:

"It's obvious that she doesn't work with the public."

And I replied:

"People love to make formal complaints, but they don't bother to send in official compliments on good service."

That's the truth. On a personal level, people are nice and thank and compliment me, but they don't take it further to the "bosses." So many people find it easier to criticize than compliment. It's the same with parenting and teaching. The negative is emphasized much more than the positive. That's something we should all work on, Gd willing.

First the "Shiva" Calls, then the Mazal Tovs

It hasn't been dull here in Shiloh while I was away in Arizona doing my Kibbud av v'em, honoring my father and mother.  During the short week I was gone, two neighbors began sitting shiva, the week of mourning, and neighbors' children got engaged to each other.

The day I returned I went out to pay shiva calls, comfort the mourners. 

And then the following day, I went to my neighbor to say "mazaltov."

Life's never very dull.  Is it?

Home is a Dream Away

By the time you read this, I should be far from home. 

Yes, I'm traveling yet again.  There are family obligations.  Even at my age, I have two parents, may they live and be well.  My sister is in charge of their care, which isn't easy.

So, my views of home will be distorted for a short (hopefully) while.

Stopping the Argument by Adding Choices

For various reasons, we ended up alone with the big grandkids on Simchat Torah.  After a lot of dancing in our very local shul, literally in our backyard, the kids and my husband had had enough.  Numbers 1 and 3 spent time at the quicker dovening with my husband, and I took the second one home with me.  We got everything ready for the festive meal. I cut the salad, and she set the table.


My daughter seems to have raised her kids with the rule I made up:

Whoever sets the table decides where everyone sits.

When my husband came home with the other two, the eldest had complaints.  She preferred a different wine cup and wasn't very pleased with her location.  The two girls began fighting it out, verbally, of course.  I decided to change the rules.  I went into the cabinet which contains all the wine and shot glasses and took out a few others, very different from the one they were fighting over.


Success!  Each one fell in love with a different cup from those included in my new choices.

"From now on, this is the only wine cup I want!" They said in unison.

That's all it took.  And neither of their choices is actually a wine cup.  One is a very kitchy small glass decorated with gold swirls and the other is a very  modern shot glass, "v" shaped on a blue ball.


Yes, classic "out of the box" thinking saved the day, B"H, thank G-d!