The Difference One Hour Makes

At work, I had a client who was, how can you say, a poop head.  In my line of work without getting into exact specifics, basically I do give advice and it is up to the client if they want to use it or not.  Usually, most clients either take my advice or leave the chair and question it later.  This poop head was one that had already determined that he knew how to do my job better than I could ever do, and the information I was giving was incorrect and it was because another person in my line of work several years ago gave advice that was, in the patients head, certified gold.  That advice was right at the time, but the client did not pick up what that person had said and there fore I will always be wrong in the client’s head.

Now, clients like this do not happen a lot.  I know how to handle them, but this poop head would not even listen to my explanation for 1) why I am doing what I am doing and 2) what the reasons are behind what is happening in this case.  He gave me a sour taste in my mouth, and I did get angry but the anger did not come out verbally, I just basically stopped the conversation as nothing I would say or do would do a difference in this case.

Fast forward to an hour later, I had the best client, who I do have a great relationship with anyways, have a great conversation, he listened to what I said, gave feedback, and we bantered a little bit, and it completely erased the sour taste in my mouth.

Just made me think how quickly a day can change, how moods can change, how just everything can change.  I can even apply this to my home life too, as the kiddo has been doing a few tantrums lately and I am having to try and deal with it, basically how scenario 1 was presented above.  Kiddo did not want his pj’s last night, he wanted to wear his day clothes to bed.  No matter how much I used my words, took off his day clothes (which just upset him even more to where he was doing those heavy sobs), tried to force the pj’s on (which accelerated the issue EVEN more), still tried to use my words without getting upset, this continued on for I think 30 minutes and I did get upset and showed my anger, to where his tantrum won, he got to wear his day clothes to bed.  To top this situation off, because of his sobs, he was so worked up, he didn’t want to go into his crib alone, but lay with me on the floor beside his bed – which I could do for a bit – but then I had to go and finish my activities for the night (like clean up/shower/ you name it), so when I thought he was relaxed enough I transferred him to his crib, but he didn’t want that at all.

I had to leave him in his crib and let him wail for a while until he fell asleep.  We have sleep trained so this isn’t anything new, but it’s like “Man, what is this kid’s issue today” is it new teeth? is it the new day care situation? But, kiddo can’t vocalize everything just yet, and when he does get upset he forgets how to use his words.  I also felt so bad/guilt as I did get upset back at him with the pj war, that once I was all done, I did get him and bring him into our bed so that he would understand that at the end of the day I do still very much love him and I didn’t mean to get upset at him for his tantrum.

Needless to say, I didn’t have a good sleep last night (my fault though) which may have lead into the poor cycle of handling the first client, but at the end of the day, I still know that no matter what I said or did with the first client it wouldn’t have made a difference anyways, but maybe I would have been more chipper and at least smiled at the guy.

 

Everyday is a new day to learn something new.