Unreasonable expectations.

Well I've been fairly slack at posting over the last few weeks. We have been trying to find a good concrete layer to create our driveway and matching garden paths. I thought the hardest thing would be finding the money for this job, the last of the really big expenses. Little did I know.

 I have contacted four concreters.

The first one advertises extensively on the radio. I had no response to the email contact and it was two days before I heard back from my phone message. The person came a few days later to have a look and then said they would send another someone around for a proper measure up and quote. That was a month ago and we haven't seen or heard from them since.

The second one looked promising, calling me within 5 minutes of my online query. It did take them over 3 weeks to send a quote but at least they sent one.

The third one (a personal recommendation from a friend) told me he was busy when I called, but to txt him my phone number and he'd call me back that night. It has been a week and I'm still waiting for a call.

The fourth one has never responded to my attempts to contact them.

What is this? Aren't we just struggling up from a global recession? Yet clearly there is so much concrete work required in the area that my driveway, (a not insignificant amount of money here) is undesirable.

Or am I one of those women who repel tradesmen by expecting the job I specified at the price agreed and in a reasonable time frame. And not only that but a good job done too.

I once asked the plumber to install an outside tap for the garden hose at the corner of our house. Thinking that was a fairly done deal I popped out to do some food shopping. When I came home I was astounded to see the tap installed in the middle of the external wall rather than the corner that we had agreed upon. The plumber just couldn't understand why I was cross. He'd decided to put it there because the water pipe ran down that bit, so it was easier than putting on an extension to the place I'd wanted. Even when I pointed out that I now had to climb through the dirt and plants to turn the hose on and off, he still didn't get it.

If I'm the one paying the bill, why shouldn't I get what I want? Why can't I have what works best for me rather than what's easiest for the tradesman? Am I unreasonable?

Setting an example

Sometimes a parent can feel like they're fighting an uphill battle, while carrying a sack of weights on their back! You try to show your kids how to manage life, how to care for their things so they last, how to save their pocket money for something worthwhile rather than a purchase at the $2 shop on a toy that lasts a day, how to eat to stay healthy,  how to keep promises, how to put things back where they belong. And you wonder if any of it is getting through.

Just when you think you are a complete and utter failure as a parent.  When the kids won't stop fighting, their rooms are a mess, and getting them to empty the dishwasher needs a degree of negotiation skill far superior to the one you possess. When the homework is late, the dinner burned and you're so frazzled you put the car keys away in the fridge, a miracle occurs...

Miss A and Miss B disappear into the rat nest that is Miss B's boudoir. We are banned from entering. three hours later (with no screaming and very little shouting coming from said room), they emerge. The Bloke and I are duly escorted, blindfolded, to the unveiling of a SPOTLESS and TIDY room. Once I picked myself up off the floor, I heaped praise upon them and gave myself a surreptitious pat on the back.