Go Away, We Don’t Want Your Money

It’s been one full week with both muppets. And their actual due date is still another week away. Gramma J departed on Saturday – back to the daily grind of a new school year. That leaves just a mom, dad and two muppets to fend for ourselves.

We’ve begun developing a routine and so far the boys sleep at night. (As much as newborns sleep – 3-4 hours at a time.) And being the big boys they are (and growing still more), they have moved out of the master bedroom and into their own room. While I have always been impressed with the overall mural decorating the nursery, Search and Destroy are showing a much more intricate artistic palette and continuously concentrate on the minute textured details of all the individual leaves on the trees above their crib.

During the day we socialize and discuss the new wonders of their world, in between feedings and diaper changes. They nap downstairs in their playpen. Napping occurs only when they are too exhausted to even cry. Destroy does occasionally fall asleep, but he much prefers to do so only when lying on one of our chests. This makes getting anything actually done around the house rather difficult.

That’s no surprise to us. We knew we were facing a challenge as soon as we learned we’d be entering the parent pool at a 1:1 ratio instead of the more traditional 2:1 parents to children. So it’s a huge success when at least one of our little chores gets accomplished. (Yesterday there was no blog post because I was busy patting myself on my back for doing all the laundry. Granted there are several more loads already needing to be done today…)

Today, both boys were snoozing after their afternoon lunch (there are multiples of each meal). Everything was otherwise chill in the Stream household. I decided to take this opportunity to make a dash for the mall.

I figured that I could make it to Nordstrom and back in under an hour. Jon was willing to hold down the fort. And I needed new nursing bras. In theory, this should have been a very quick and straightforward transaction. I made it to the mall, parked in no man’s land because I’m still scared of parking stalls while in the much-larger-than-my-Accord Honda Pilot and located the lingerie department.

I asked a friendly clerk if she would be so kind as to point me toward the nursing bras. “Did you need to be measured?” she offered. I declined – just need to be pointed in the direction, thanks. Instead, she asked if I would mind waiting for her colleague to finish her transaction and she could then help me. I was slightly confused, but I patiently waited.

Finally, after about five minutes, the nursing bra clerk was available to, what I hoped, walk me over to the nursing bras. “Is this bra for you or someone else?” (Are gift bras located in a different section?) I assured her if was for me. She then paused. “Well…we’re doing inventory tonight, so we can’t touch anything in the stockroom.”

Confirm you are telling me I can’t buy anything today because you need to count what you haven’t sold later tonight?

She then suggested I come back tomorrow. I explained to her that I was shopping for said nursing bras because there were two small boys at home waiting for me and my new nursing bra. So no. I cannot simply come back tomorrow because it already took an act of God for me to dart out for this hour (a slight exaggeration). She offered to measure me and mail me a different bra tomorrow. I said thank you, but no thanks, I prefer to pick out my own undergarments.

I just wanted to spend money after shopping at a brick-and-mortar store. Unfortunately, this was not a presentable option. Corporate decision makers – if you’re out there – telling customers to go away is a bad business move in my opinion. Especially when the items relate to new babies.

Next time I’m going to stay home and nap with the boys. We live in the Silicon Valley – I’ll just order online.