Frustration
Can I please vent for just a small second?
I need to vent to something or someone, and my laptop is the closest thing. If I don't, my head might explode and that will not be the funnest thing in the world to clean up. Especially because I won't have a head.
My husband and I were in Las Vegas last weekend, right? Right. So earlier in the week, I called the students I teach on those days and informed them that I wouldn't be there. "See you next week", I said. Well, this week rolled on by and neither of those students showed up for their lesson. No calls/no shows, in fact. Does anyone have any inkling how hard it is to teach a lesson to a student who's not there? I'm sure you do.
I remember back in the day when I was taking lessons from my very first violin teacher. I luffed her. I still do. But anywhoo, on our way to a lesson one day, my mom was trying to turn right onto a busy road, and so she was busy looking to her left at the oncoming traffic. A teenage boy was riding his bike along the sidewalk coming from the right. Well, he started to pull in front of the car right as my mom started to go. My mom freaked out as he hit him and I just sat there like a dummy. I don't do well in stressful situations, apparently. She hopped out and made sure he was okay, which he was. She got back in the car to back up so he could get his bike out from under the tire, and as soon as she did, he hopped back on the bike and peddled along his merry way. My mom tried to stop him, but he was long gone. With a crooked bike tire. Go, little fella, go.
The moral of that dear story, friends, is that I STILL don't think we were late to our violin lesson. If we were, that was the ONE time. And we had a pretty darn good reason.
People are busy, I understand. I get it. Kids get sick. Gottcha. I don't live in a bubble. I know these things. But 99% of the time, there's no reason to be late to an appointment, whether it's to the doctor's to get your hairy growth removed, your toes painted at the salon, your 15th kid's music lesson, or dinner with friends. I'm sorry, but I think it is very, very disrespectful to be late every . . . single . . . time, and insanely rude and disrespectful to just 'not show up'.
Fortunately, I still only teach the alloted time period whether the student shows up late or not (but that leads me to another tacky thing. . . showing up late to pick up your kid. People. Pick up your kid on time. I'm not their babysitter.) and I still get paid for the lesson if they don't show up. But then I have to fight the look the parents give me that says I'm a heartless boogie monster for charging them for a lesson they didn't attend. Oh, well. I'll get over it.
I have a simple rule in my contract. If you cancel with at least 24 hours notice, you're good to go. You'll get a make-up lesson. If you notify me with less than 24 hours notice, you get charged. So if your kid seems to be coming down with a cold on Thursday, don't wait until Saturday afternoon 4 hours after their scheduled lesson time to e-mail their teacher and tell her they're sick. If you do, you'll be a day late and a dollar short. Many dollars short, in fact.
Capeesh?
Alright then. I'm done.
For now ;)
I need to vent to something or someone, and my laptop is the closest thing. If I don't, my head might explode and that will not be the funnest thing in the world to clean up. Especially because I won't have a head.
My husband and I were in Las Vegas last weekend, right? Right. So earlier in the week, I called the students I teach on those days and informed them that I wouldn't be there. "See you next week", I said. Well, this week rolled on by and neither of those students showed up for their lesson. No calls/no shows, in fact. Does anyone have any inkling how hard it is to teach a lesson to a student who's not there? I'm sure you do.
I remember back in the day when I was taking lessons from my very first violin teacher. I luffed her. I still do. But anywhoo, on our way to a lesson one day, my mom was trying to turn right onto a busy road, and so she was busy looking to her left at the oncoming traffic. A teenage boy was riding his bike along the sidewalk coming from the right. Well, he started to pull in front of the car right as my mom started to go. My mom freaked out as he hit him and I just sat there like a dummy. I don't do well in stressful situations, apparently. She hopped out and made sure he was okay, which he was. She got back in the car to back up so he could get his bike out from under the tire, and as soon as she did, he hopped back on the bike and peddled along his merry way. My mom tried to stop him, but he was long gone. With a crooked bike tire. Go, little fella, go.
The moral of that dear story, friends, is that I STILL don't think we were late to our violin lesson. If we were, that was the ONE time. And we had a pretty darn good reason.
People are busy, I understand. I get it. Kids get sick. Gottcha. I don't live in a bubble. I know these things. But 99% of the time, there's no reason to be late to an appointment, whether it's to the doctor's to get your hairy growth removed, your toes painted at the salon, your 15th kid's music lesson, or dinner with friends. I'm sorry, but I think it is very, very disrespectful to be late every . . . single . . . time, and insanely rude and disrespectful to just 'not show up'.
Fortunately, I still only teach the alloted time period whether the student shows up late or not (but that leads me to another tacky thing. . . showing up late to pick up your kid. People. Pick up your kid on time. I'm not their babysitter.) and I still get paid for the lesson if they don't show up. But then I have to fight the look the parents give me that says I'm a heartless boogie monster for charging them for a lesson they didn't attend. Oh, well. I'll get over it.
I have a simple rule in my contract. If you cancel with at least 24 hours notice, you're good to go. You'll get a make-up lesson. If you notify me with less than 24 hours notice, you get charged. So if your kid seems to be coming down with a cold on Thursday, don't wait until Saturday afternoon 4 hours after their scheduled lesson time to e-mail their teacher and tell her they're sick. If you do, you'll be a day late and a dollar short. Many dollars short, in fact.
Capeesh?
For now ;)
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