Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Problem with Playgroups

As a military family you are constantly moving and would like your children, especially your non school aged children, to socialize since you are not around family. So you go out and look for playgroups and frg socials to find someone to connect with and have your child play with. I am a member of Meetup.com. This is an excellent way to find social groups around you. People go to this web site and advertise their "clubs." For example, playgroups, scrapbookers, knitter, bike clubs, book clubs and so much more. I found this site when I was living in San Antonio and my son was an infant. I met up with a group twice but it wasn't for us. My son was just too young to socialize than.

When we moved to Colorado Springs my son was one and walking around so I decided that we should join a playgroup. I went back to meetup. com and joined Connect - the - Tots. This group was just great. The first time I arrived to a playdate I was immediately greeted by the organizer and was given the low down and at the end of the date I was asked what I thought and was ask to continue showing up. I did. This group did expand to over a 100 moms but I think that was great because there were NO CLIQUES. Of course you had a group of moms you saw more often and hung out with more often but I never ran into anyone unwelcoming. Everyone I met was very welcoming and spoke/treated everyone with great respect. I miss these women very much. I wish them all the best.

Well I got to Killeen and it was all a different story. I almost want to say because they are army wives because I did have a few problems with the few army wives in Colorado but this place is army wife central so I don't know. I joined Hot Mommas, a group of about 20 moms. Just like the previous playgroup the organizers here were absolutely wonderful. I was always greeted and always spoken to. The rest of the members never said a word to me. I would try to get into the conversations or make small talk but I would get a quick, "ha ha," an eye roll, and a walk away. I spoke with the organizers most of the time I went to anything. I did talk to one mom there but that is because she directly came up to me and told me that she would talk to me because no one else will welcome me.  I honestly don't care as long as my son has an opportunity to play. The last event I went to was the Valentine's party. My son was running around with another little girl.  They ran into each and bumped heads. She ran to her mother and said she got hit. I tried to apologize to the mother since he daughter was crying (even though I shouldn't have had to) but she didn't want to hear. "Oh well." I thought. Later that night she posted on the playgroup message board that her daughter got punched in the face. I was furious. I told her that if she spent more time watching her kids and less time socializing she would know what had happened. Evidently that comment opened up the floodgates and I was told by the organizers that I shouldn't "insult" anyone. If you people think that comment was an insult you got another thing coming. Every one of those mom lets there kids run wild to where they run outside the building, are sitting on the bathroom floor eating toilet paper and beating each other up. But since I said something, the truth, I rocked the boat and pissed everyone off. I left this group. I couldn't believe what idiots, yes Hot Mommas, IDIOTS, I was dealing with. Unfortunately Killeen is a small town and everyone talks to everyone, I haven't had luck with another playgroup. I "applied" to another one on Feb 12th and still haven't heard anything. I guess I will just have to wait until my son turns 3 in a couple of months then I can put him in sports.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Hair Salon Review

Here's my first review happened a few months ago but it still boils my blood.
Great Clips. Harker Heights
I am a stickler when it comes to customer service. I walked in and was standing at the counter to check in. Now the stylists were all busy but someone could have said, "Hi, have a seat we'll be right with you." I understand you are busy but don't just see we walk in and pretend I'm not standing there waiting to check in. So I waited. A stylist finished and then ran away to the back. I am assuming she was the manager since she was doing inventory and telling the other stylists what to do. She never came to the front to sign me in. I finally got up and asked to be signed in. I was given the eye roll. I guess I was inconveniencing her. I had my son with me since it was for his haircut. I wanted to see a product that was on the shelf so I asked him to get it for me. The "manager" was doing inventory nearby and saw him reaching for a product. She was telling him not to touch and I kept shouting "It's ok I want to see the product." She was more than likely ignoring me and as I was walking over to him I was able to stop this broad from SLAPPING my son's hand. I slapped the crap out of her hand to push it away from his. By this time I had the whole salon in a uproar about her attempting to hit my son. While I was yelling at her and how dare she attempt to hit someone else's child all she did was respond with, "I'm going to refuse you service. You need to leave". Ha Ha big loss to me. So if you go here and you see a fat, black haired woman watch your kids or they might get whacked. I understand that these stylist probably take a lot from peoples kids. Some run around screaming and knocking down things but that in no way gives them the right to strike a child. I probably should have called the regional manager to file a complaint but from what I hear from other people is that stylists change at that store so frequently that it probably wouldn't have matter.

Back with a Vengence


So I know it has been about 6 mos since I have written but that is all about to change. I have a little more time now. I have learned how to better manage my time. I have also decided to to change the format of my blog. Even though I am an army wife that does not consume my life. Actually it doesn't effect me at all really. I can not base my blog on this because I would not have anything to write. I am also a veteran, a  mother, a fashion follower, and a consumer. I have decided to make this blog a little more personal and talk about things that interest me. I will talk about how I can't for the life of me get my son to listen. How being an army wife COMPLETELY overshadows the fact that I am a veteran and shouldn't be treated like I'm uneducated. I will also be doing reviews on places/playgroups/people I come across. I feel this is helpful and "military" related since we are always moving and wondering about places. As a mom I like to hear about products that were awesome or were a waste of money. I will not do many of these as you could just look them up at the store's website, but if I find something that's worth mentioning I will. I am trying to do a little bit of something for everyone. I always have things to say and now I can. I hope you enjoy my "expanded" blog.

****DISCLAIMER****

  • I am going to be COMPLETELY honest. I will NOT sugarcoat anything! A swear word might slip in. I am very passionate about what I write.
  • I will not use people's names. I will however use sgt, 1sg, cdr... whatever title they hold.
  • I will not say anything negative about any military program. Unless something was utterly out of line. If I had nothing good to say about them that means they were, "ok"
  • I will mention civilian businesses, products and playgroups by name and release location information.
  • Any product reviews that I do are non bias and are based on my own opinion. I buy all the products and review them without receiving pay.
MOST IMPORTANTLY... If you figure out who my family is, or any person that I am talking about, I ask that you  DO NOT mention it on my blog. Any comments will be removed and you will be removed from my blog. Thanks