The Daily Grind of a Work @ Home Mom...

There's something about Barbie

I don't remember playing with Barbie as a child.  I remember Cabbage Patch Kids, Easy Bake Ovens (nothing like cooking by light bulb) and Lite Brite, but not much in the way of Barbie or her friends.  In fact, I can recall seeing one of those hot pink Barbie convertibles at a friend's house and being very interested in it because I didn't have one of my own and because it was so big and pink.  I don't think there was any moral reason why I had no Barbie in my toy collection (my parents took me to see Porky's when I was 7 by "accident"), it probably had more to do with a low interest level.

So imagine my surprise when my four-year-old daughter asked for the "new" Barbie for her birthday.  When she couldn't remember exactly which one it was, her older sister chimed in.  "It's Barbie Goes to Charm School, Mom."  Right.

She's five.

Gotta love TV commercials aimed at five-year-old's.

When a friend asked for an idea of what to get Sabrina for her b-day, I relayed the message.  Charm School Barbie.  And as a mom to two boys, she couldn't wait to hit the store to pick up a doll.

So, Barbie showed up last night.  What is a Charm School Barbie, right?  Well, she's dressed in a pink bustier, has on a multi-layered skirt, and is topped off with a tiara.  The skirt is long but when you wind up Barbie (from the rear, of course), the long layer disappears into the short part and voila - fun-time Barbie takes the place of proper Barbie.

Or as I like to call her, Madonna and the Whore Barbie. 

In case you need a visual:

Of course, Barbie comes with a clip-on t-shirt for the more virtuous look (probably to cover up when she goes home to her parents). 

There's something about Barbie in general that I find less-than innocent.  I don't know if it's her tiny waist against those gimormous boobs, or the fact that she's always decked out in these hot, sexy outfits. Something about those big baby blues and that innocent smile.

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I've stumbled upon this scenario in my own homen more than once:

Or this:

Soooooooo fun! Or whatever.

In any case, I'm calling a moratorium on Barbie presents in our house for a while.  And while we're at it, what exactly are they teaching at charm school, anyways?

Come to a 3 MUSKETEERS Like-Up at the W Hotel in Boston!

It's very appropriate that I've been invited to co-host a "Like-Up" on behalf of 3 Musketeers, because my name is Jill and I'm a chocoholic. 

The event, to unveil 3 Musketeers' reformulated chocolate bar, will be a couple of hours of chocolate tasting and other fun, all at the beautiful W Hotel, located in the heart of Boston's Theatre District. 

• When: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
• Where: W Boston, 100 Stuart Street , Boston, MA 02116
• Why: Over 90% of Americans surveyed wanted more sleep, vacation and chocolate.  This event will definitely satisfy one of those needs, and raffle off chances to indulge in the others.
  

And I'll be there!

To RSVP, click here (and let me know you're going!).  And be sure to Like 3 Musketeers on facebook, too!

Still undecided?  Check it out...

Disclosure: I’m an official co-host of this event, and will be compensated for my participation.

 

Sometimes NO social media customer service beats bad social media customer service

This post is a long time coming.  I can't believe I'm just getting around to writing it now since I myself am a self-proclaimed online customer service junkie.  And by that I mean I hit Twitter before picking up the phone when I have an issue with a brand that needs addressing.

I've written about specific experiences here before.  I had an issue with a hard-up Toys 'r Us employee who used a credit card she created with my personal info for her Christmas shopping.  I posted about it - more than once - and finally received attention from the company.

I've utilized Twitter for customer service more times than I can count.  @ComcastBill and I are BFF's.  He has set-up appointments for me, reset my cable box for me without having to spend even one second on hold, and even sent me a new remote control - on the house - when I lost mine.  Comcast is one of the finest examples of the best of social media customer service. 

@Lexus is another example of a company that came to my rescue.  Long story short, I was facing a very expensive repair on my car (that I shouldn't have needed at all) and after letting me know that it would be $5,000 and there was nothing I could do about it and that they were "very busy", I tweeted for some help and the situation was rectified within hours.  I'm still not sure if this was a result of timing - it came on the heels of the Toyota PR Fail that garnered LOTS of attention - or if they decided to cover my repair as a result of an error on their part (as they said).  Bottom line is, I was taken care of and spent not a moment on the phone with the company.

Seems airlines are not as adept at responding to customer complaints.  Could it be because people are constantly cranky when traveling?  I have beared witness to insane people barraging agents with questions, comments and complaints when a flight is delayed or whatever. 

"WELL, WHEN WILL IT STOP SNOWING????"

You know, it's my contention that if your plane isn't taking off because it's not safe to fly, it might be annoying, but hey, at the end of the day you're not a story at the top of the hour.  Right?  Alive beats dead.

But anyhow.

Recently I tweeted @SpiritAirlines because I was annoyed by a charge I saw on my credit card.  They never responded.  When I checked out what was up with other people using Twitter to talk to Spirit, I saw a lot of angry tweets like these:

But when I checked Spirit's timeline, I see not one @.  They tweet out their sales and their news, but they don't respond to customer queries, positive or negative.  This is just TERRIBLE customer service.

Spirit Airlines either has a very dumb or very annoyed PR team. 

Spirit isn't alone in their Twitter fail.  Many brands take to Twitter simply to use it as a platform for screaming their latest news but what they don't get is that Twitter actually functions as a conversation.  When used correctly, Twitter is meant to engage with others, whether you're a blogger, a brand, a PR agency, or a regular person.  If you don't engage, you will not have Twitter success.

My advice, quick and dirty style: if you're not going to do it right, just don't do it at all.

So even though Twitter is all the rage right now, if you're going to ignore me when I talk to you, I'm taking my ball and going home.

 

Stopping to Smell the Pine Needles

Yesterday, Columbus Day, my kids and I were both relieved of our regularly scheduled duties and were free to spend the day together.  Sure, we have weekends together but with packed weekdays filled with school, work, the intermittent playdate and such, there's not much time to put food in the fridge or get haircuts and so weekends are busy too.

But yesterday was totally, completely free.  No visitors, no plans, nothing but us and a record-breaking day of sunshine.  So we hit the road and headed to one of my favorite local spots.  A state park, this not-so-hidden gem has a beautiful pond and a 1.7 mile trail around the water, complete with private divets for swimming and other fun. Being October, we left our bathing suits at home, but we had our sneakers, our bags to fill with rocks (which we would later paint), and our sense of adventure.

I've been dying to get my kids out there for months but was reluctant about a 1.5+ mile walk with a five and not-quite four year old and well, I wasn't looking to haul a 35lb weight around on my back.  But I decided to go for it anyway.  And it was amazing.

My older daughter, an avid outdoors(wo)man, embraced the moment.  She more than indulged me in my requests to close our eyes and breathe in the scents to recall at a later date.  When I asked her what she was smelling when she breathed in deep, she said, "pine needles, water, and nature." 

My almost four-year old replied, "nothing." 

Points for trying, I guess.

Still, it was a great outing.  Despite the fact that I carried a kid for a quarter of a mile while she smiled triumphantly (stupid Mommy gives in to everything), I was glad to have tested their limits instead of doing something safe (I can't be the only parent who hates the zoo).

We stopped to smell the pine needles.  We breathed in the nature.  And I had two sleepy kids last night.  A day well-spent.

Steve Jobs May Have Died but He Left Some Pretty Cool Stuff...

And I don't mean computers.

I was aware, like the rest of the world, that Steve Jobs was ill. I knew that he stopped working a little while ago and that analysts and media everywhere noted that event as the beginning of the end. I was saddened to hear of his death last night, which I learned about while perusing my Facebook timeline.

So when I saw every single one of my friends statuses change to reflect Jobs' death, I took as minute to think about what this brilliant man, who literally revolutionized our world, meant to me personally.  Not initially a huge Apple adopter, I recently fell in love with the Macbook and I can't live without my iPod (which sat, untouched, in its pristine box for months before I actually decided to read the instructions).  So to say that I've followed the company since its inception would be a lie.

But a few years ago, as everyone and their mother knows, Jobs spoke at Stanford University's commencement and his speech went viral in a flash.  His words had little to do with the brilliance he had imparted on the world or his own ego, but more to do with exactly what a commencement speech should exact - Jobs gave sage advice to that graduating class, and because of the depth of his words, he ultimately touch millions of people, people who were nowhere near that campus that day, with these words.

I defy you to find someone, anyone, who can't relate to this:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Who doesn't want to live their best life?  Who isn't out there looking for ultimate contentment?  Without being unrealistic, Steve Jobs had a really good point: he was advising those freshly minted young adults to LIVE.  Just live.  To follow your gut (which so many of us often forget to do), trust your instincts, and live.

I needed that reminder yesterday in particular.  I don't use an iPhone and I'm not sold on the iPad quite yet.  But Steve Jobs' spirit lives on, even for those of us who took nothing more from him than a little wisdom.

RIP, Steve Jobs.