What's my Beef?

When did personal responsibility get thrown out the window? (yah, I know, somewhere around the late 80’s) When I make a mistake (and am aware of it) I apologize…it’s not the easiest thing in the world to admit you are wrong, but it’s the right thing. My own children know when to say, “my bad” and apologize. So why is it acceptable for seemingly reasonable adults to try to weasel out of carrying their share of the responsibility load?

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Here’s my story (prepare to be incensed). DD (darling daughter) saw the orthodontist today - got a broken (unglued) brace fixed (for the 2nd time in 3 weeks). We left the office and headed off to the nursery (half hour away) and after finishing our plant shopping, headed home. We hadn’t gone a block from the nursery when aforementioned daughter yelled, “it’s broken again!”…..Crap! (my contribution, not hers) I immediately had her dial the office…figured we could head straight there on our way back home. It’s now 4:15 and I get the receptionist who tells me that they close at 4:30 so I need to be there by then. I inform her that I am half an hour away and ask if they can wait for us. No, she says, the office closes at 4:30 so we would need to be there by that time. I am tempted to tell her that unless she believes we can tele-transport ala Star Trek, we aint gonna make it. I resist the urge towards sarcasm and with a heavy sigh I ask her, "what time can you see us in the morning?"......

“Oh, no," she replies, "we’re closed on Fridays; it’ll have to wait until Monday.”

At this point I think you can literally see steam rising from my face. I grit my teeth and ask her if the office didn’t feel the least bit compelled to take some responsibility for a brace THEY just glued on?!?! She replied that there were ALL kinds of reasons a brace could come unglued that would not reflect poorly on the office staff. What would those ‘reasons’ be? “She could have been grinding her teeth or the top teeth could’ve bitten down over the bottom and caused it to pop off (coincidentally just the one that they had worked on came unglued, this biting action somehow missed the other braces)

Now, my daughter is wearing braces because she has crooked teeth NOT because she has an overbite. I defy anyone reading this (all 2 of you) to get your upper jaw to overlap your bottom teeth in such a way. I’m thinking it’s pretty much physically impossible to do this, under ANY circumstances….. I tell her that in the HOUR since we left the office, my daughter has done nothing other than swallow (and breathe) and since this is now the 3rd time that this same brace has had issues, maybe it wasn’t HER that was the problem. In the 2 years my son wore braces, he never once had a brace come loose. The kid was hit by a car and dag nabbit, those braces held. But my bigger frustration here was with this gal’s attitude. During the entire conversation, this woman never ONCE offered an apology, not once did she offer my daughter any consideration on her -now chronic- condition and merely tells me that, unless she is in pain….(the urge to lie is almost overwhelming)… they could not consider this an emergency and therefore it would have to wait.

If it were not for a contract that I’m fairly certain would be binding in a court of law, I wouldn’t step foot in this guys office ever again…in my life! As it is, I’m planning my revenge as we speak. I’m sure I can arrange some ‘unfortunate accident’ to be visited upon the office staff…..I’m thinking toilet paper and trolls….

Ps. If anyone in law enforcement or the FBI is reading this….it’s a JOKE….I’m just kidding….honest….I have no idea where I can get ahold of a troll...