what can you do but laugh

or cry i guess....

i love my job and feel like i am spending time doing something that is worthwhile and makes a difference in my community with children and families. However! There are a few times and days where i am just shocked at people's behavior.

i got a new referral for a young mom with four children so i called the source and we planned a joint visit. it was a great visit; the mom was very welcoming and inviting. my first thought was wow this will be a family that i get to know well and work with for years.

we had another visit at the house and then planned an outing to the science museum to interact with other children and have them mom interact with other moms. i got there on time and the mom with her four children, grandma, cousin and her cousins two children got there an hour late. after an hour she NEEDED food for her children and did not bring any. so she wanted me to buy them food since i got them into the museum i should be able to do that. (right)

after this visit i returned to the family home; mom forgot, was asleep at 1:00pm and wanted to reschedule so we did and when i went back no one was home. i called, left messages and stopped by several other times. nothing.

so i was closing her. nothing i could do.

one day about two months later i overhear a conversation with my bosses boss about a frantic family who needs help and support, resources before her daughter was kicked out of school, they were out of food, their home was condemned....the list goes on and on. the co-worker asked questions and we discovered that this was the same family from months earlier. the mother had not told our director that she had worked with me, that her daughter had come into the classroom here at the resource center or that we had gone to the museum. she simply stated that she was in crisis and needed services.

so i got the new address, a shelter and called. the mother refused to acknowledge that we had worked together. that she had ever met me or that we had gone to the museum together. "that must have been another family, another parent. not us, not me!"

ok~so being in a shelter she wanted to reschedule a visit when she got settled into her new apartment and she hung up.

So i waited; left two more messages, heard nothing back and called yesterday, she answered the phone and yelled at me; "how did you get this number?" I explained that she had given me the new phone when we had talked last. She said "I have no idea who you are and I do not understand why you are harassing me."

I explained again who I was and that when we had talked last she needed some support and wanted some services. I was simply calling to help her. She then proceeded to teach me all kinds of new bad words and phrases, yelling, screaming and "to not harass her anymore" still refusing to acknowledge that we had ever met.

and hung up the phone on me again!!!

today I am laughing but yesterday I was so mad and irritated....you gotta love these families. Chris just laughed and laughed.