u/gameofthrones_addict

I remember a small act of malicious compliance I had whenever I was still living with my parents when I was in high school. I had to leave for work and I realized my younger sister‘s car was parked behind mine. I asked her if she could move it for me so I could leave. I figured if she moved it and I pulled out then she could simply pull back into the driveway and park where I was. Easy peasy.

But nope. She, for some reason, had an attitude and said “No, you move it.” In a rather snippy tone. She couldn’t even be bothered to give me her keys. Irritated, I grabbed them and left.

One thing to note is that our grandparents lived across the street from us. They owned a few acres of land and their house was one of those houses that was built on top of the hill that was a solid 100 to 120 yards away from the main road. And the entrance to their long runway of a driveway was another hundred yards away from our parents’ house. So as I was moving her car, I had the thought to drive up their driveway and park it by their house.

Took me a couple minutes to walk home, drop her keys off and leave. She never refused to move her car again.

My wife and I have been foster parents for about 5 years. We’ve had the kids we’ve had for 2 years now. The older brother (9 years old currently) moved in with us during the summer a couple years and later the younger sister (7 years old currently) February of this year due to she was already in another placement at the time. She moved in due to we have the goal to adopt and the prior placement for her was wishing to remain at the fostering stage the kids they take in.

During the time we had the older brother by himself, like many kids, he was attached to the hip at any electronic screen he can his hands on. We understand that was more or less how the bio parents parented them is to give them unlimited access to any screen or game he wanted to play. He even admitted at the age of 5 and 6 years old at his home he was allowed to play games like GTA 5. It’s surprising to us what he was able to do at such a young age.

Over the years we’ve struggled with him not wanting to get off of the Xbox or his tablet to go to bed at night, or to leave the house to do things we had needed to get done. It got to the point that he was sneaking devices that we had and hiding them under his bed sheets and mattress so that he could use them in the middle of the night. We’ve talked to him about why this is a bad idea. Explaining to him that night is for sleeping and if we don’t get adequate rest then it affects our mood and energy the next day.

Afterward, we had put child locks on the devices we don’t use as well as the Xbox to where if you don’t know the password it will not work for you, as well as time locks where the tablets won’t even work from certain time frame. Also we’ve gone to hiding these mobile devices in our room overnight just in case.

When the sister moved in, we faced similar attitudes from her regarding electronic screen devices. She had struggled with listening and obeying when we ask her to get off of it for the night and/or so we can leave to go do other things. We’ve learned to give the kids a heads up or warnings, like telling them they have half an hour left, or 15 minutes left, etc so that they will have that in their mind to help ease the transition. That’s helped in many cases for sure.

More recently, a neighbor of ours moved out and was selling a few items to downsize and to gain money for the move. One of the items was a 6 foot cabinet piece that was built to be more like a desk for a computer that could be locked from the outside. I had acquired that from the neighbor as I thought it would be great to use as like a charging station for these mobile devices and for storage for our printer, etc. this has been great for us considering we don’t have to hide the electronic items in our room to keep the kids from getting to them.

This addiction to screens seems to have come to a head recently. One thing to note is we have two cameras placed in the inside of our home. One is facing toward our kitchen from the living room and the other is facing from the kitchen to the living room to watch the main open area in case of burglaries, or honestly, to inquire when/if the kids woke up and did something in the middle of the night due to multiple times we’ve found things moved around and missing.

Last weekend while we were asleep just past midnight both of the kids had managed to take my wife’s work laptop out of her bag and take it back to their room. They luckily didn’t break it, but the battery was completely dead. We didn’t punish them but I admit we both were quite upset due to this. We sat them down and explained to them that what they did could have had serious repercussions for her such as if the laptop was broken we’d have to pay to replace it, or worse, she could get fired due to information on the laptop isn’t for anyone else to look at.

That brings us to this weekend. Yesterday we woke up to the desk/charging station was scooted away from the wall. The backing to it was literally cut into. What we have in there in terms of electronic devices was the younger sister’s tablet, the older brother’s Chromebook we got him for his birthday, and an iPhone thats several generations old that doesn’t have any data plan and only worked on WiFi. We allow the older brother to use the phone as well at home only. all of which, again, were locked down for not being able to work from 8:00 pm - 8:00 AM and also heavily child safety blocked for appropriate ages for searching the internet. The only thing that was missing out of this was the little sister’s tablet.

Of course, both of them denied that either of them had anything to do with it. The camera pointing to where this was had been offline so we didn’t catch who did this. The tablet was found in the little sister’s bed. Both my wife and I were shocked that either of them would’ve even attempted to do this considering that cabinet is over 100 pounds. I’m still not quite sure how it was done unless it was just that it slid across the floor as they pushed against the wall.

After much talking with them we determined that the younger sister was the culprit. We grounded her off of screens and to her bedroom because of this. We also talked to her about how concerning this is. Not only due to that this is concerning due to it’s considered addiction territory with this behavior, but also that she could have truly hurt herself. If the cabinet could have fallen over or if she got stuck climbing into the cabinet or cut herself with the scissors we found that was used to cut the back of the cabinet apart.

We truly thought we had found a great solution with this cabinet being a lock box for the mobile screen devices, but just like every other solution we’ve had for this, we’ve been proven wrong. Is there any tips anyone has to give us to not playing defense and feel like we will wake up one day with the kids hurting themselves because of this?

My wife and I have been foster parents for about 5 years. We’ve had the kids we’ve had for 2 years now. The older brother (9 years old currently) moved in with us during the summer a couple years and later the younger sister (7 years old currently) February of this year due to she was already in another placement at the time. She moved in due to we have the goal to adopt and the prior placement for her was wishing to remain at the fostering stage the kids they take in.

During the time we had the older brother by himself, like many kids, he was attached to the hip at any electronic screen he can his hands on. We understand that was more or less how the bio parents parented them is to give them unlimited access to any screen or game he wanted to play. He even admitted at the age of 5 and 6 years old at his home he was allowed to play games like GTA 5. It’s surprising to us what he was able to do at such a young age.

Over the years we’ve struggled with him not wanting to get off of the Xbox or his tablet to go to bed at night, or to leave the house to do things we had needed to get done. It got to the point that he was sneaking devices that we had and hiding them under his bed sheets and mattress so that he could use them in the middle of the night. We’ve talked to him about why this is a bad idea. Explaining to him that night is for sleeping and if we don’t get adequate rest then it affects our mood and energy the next day.

Afterward, we had put child locks on the devices we don’t use as well as the Xbox to where if you don’t know the password it will not work for you, as well as time locks where the tablets won’t even work from certain time frame. Also we’ve gone to hiding these mobile devices in our room overnight just in case.

When the sister moved in, we faced similar attitudes from her regarding electronic screen devices. She had struggled with listening and obeying when we ask her to get off of it for the night and/or so we can leave to go do other things. We’ve learned to give the kids a heads up or warnings, like telling them they have half an hour left, or 15 minutes left, etc so that they will have that in their mind to help ease the transition. That’s helped in many cases for sure.

More recently, a neighbor of ours moved out and was selling a few items to downsize and to gain money for the move. One of the items was a 6 foot cabinet piece that was built to be more like a desk for a computer that could be locked from the outside. I had acquired that from the neighbor as I thought it would be great to use as like a charging station for these mobile devices and for storage for our printer, etc. this has been great for us considering we don’t have to hide the electronic items in our room to keep the kids from getting to them.

This addiction to screens seems to have come to a head recently. One thing to note is we have two cameras placed in the inside of our home. One is facing toward our kitchen from the living room and the other is facing from the kitchen to the living room to watch the main open area in case of burglaries, or honestly, to inquire when/if the kids woke up and did something in the middle of the night due to multiple times we’ve found things moved around and missing.

Last weekend while we were asleep just past midnight both of the kids had managed to take my wife’s work laptop out of her bag and take it back to their room. They luckily didn’t break it, but the battery was completely dead. We didn’t punish them but I admit we both were quite upset due to this. We sat them down and explained to them that what they did could have had serious repercussions for her such as if the laptop was broken we’d have to pay to replace it, or worse, she could get fired due to information on the laptop isn’t for anyone else to look at.

That brings us to this weekend. Yesterday we woke up to the desk/charging station was scooted away from the wall. The backing to it was literally cut into. What we have in there in terms of electronic devices was the younger sister’s tablet, the older brother’s Chromebook we got him for his birthday, and an iPhone thats several generations old that doesn’t have any data plan and only worked on WiFi. We allow the older brother to use the phone as well at home only. all of which, again, were locked down for not being able to work from 8:00 pm - 8:00 AM and also heavily child safety blocked for appropriate ages for searching the internet. The only thing that was missing out of this was the little sister’s tablet.

Of course, both of them denied that either of them had anything to do with it. The camera pointing to where this was had been offline so we didn’t catch who did this. The tablet was found in the little sister’s bed. Both my wife and I were shocked that either of them would’ve even attempted to do this considering that cabinet is over 100 pounds. I’m still not quite sure how it was done unless it was just that it slid across the floor as they pushed against the wall.

After much talking with them we determined that the younger sister was the culprit. We grounded her off of screens and to her bedroom because of this. We also talked to her about how concerning this is. Not only due to that this is concerning due to it’s considered addiction territory with this behavior, but also that she could have truly hurt herself. If the cabinet could have fallen over or if she got stuck climbing into the cabinet or cut herself with the scissors we found that was used to cut the back of the cabinet apart.

We truly thought we had found a great solution with this cabinet being a lock box for the mobile screen devices, but just like every other solution we’ve had for this, we’ve been proven wrong. Is there any tips anyone has to give us to not playing defense and feel like we will wake up one day with the kids hurting themselves because of this?

Polar Bear:
Weight: 800 to 1,500 lbs (360–680 kg) for adult males.
Bite Force: 1,200 PSI. Built for crushing seal skulls and tearing through thick blubber.
Maneuverability: Highly agile on ice and snow with non-slip paw pads. Exceptionally mobile swimmer in open water.
Agility: Explosive burst speed (up to 25 mph / 40 km/h) over short distances on land, with sharp turning ability on slippery terrain.
Main Weakness: Overheating & Stamina. Extremely thick fat layers and heavy fur mean they overheat rapidly during prolonged high-speed pursuits or warm environment exertion.

Hippopotamus
Weight: 3,000 to 4,500 lbs (1,300–2,000 kg) for adult males.
Bite Force: 1,260 PSI (female tested; males estimated up to 2,000 PSI) delivered through massive 1.5-foot tusk-like teeth.
Maneuverability: Extremely dominant and surprisingly nimble in shallow water, using low center of gravity to push through mud and currents.
Agility: Surprisingly fast on land in a straight line (up to 19 mph / 30 km/h), but struggles with sharp turns or rapid directional changes.
Main Weakness: Low Flexibility & Dehydration. Their dense, barrel-shaped body lacks back-and-neck articulation, leaving exposed flanks. Additionally, their sensitive skin dehydrates and cracks rapidly without water or mud coverage.

Neutral ground near the U.S. - Canada border in a flat plains area on the shores of one of the Great Lakes or the St. Lawerence River.

I’m sure this has been asked before but I want to ask about something I’m experiencing. I have the Xbox series x. Sporadically when accessing a streaming service such as hbo max, Disney, Netflix, etc. the audio will suddenly drop. Sometimes resetting the Xbox will fix the issue, but other times it doesn’t. We’d have to turn our tv volume up to the max to not even hear it as loud as it was when we had it at 20% volume. Anyone know why this happens or have experienced the same thing?

Customer surveys, feedback, whatever your company you calls them, is held way too high in regards to our jobs. I’m not sure about the rest of you but if the call center, you work at is like mine, this potentially affects things like pay raises, bonuses, potential promotions, and employment among other things.

I completely understand as to why this would be so important. The company does not want a handful of employees that answer phones to be constantly rude and not helpful to their customers. That’s the point of the job. You’re supposed to be assisting with issues that people call about and to make the customer feel as if they are heard and respected. No one wants to call to discuss an issue only to met with hostility, sarcasm, and defensiveness.

Alternatively, that’s the same behavior we’re facing from customers every single day. Many customers are calm and collected, but others call in to complain about a multitude of reasons. Anything short of completely waiving their bill off, or pushing some magic button to instantly fix the issue they are calling for, some customers are just going to be angry. Management knows this and may give some slack in terms of how much you tried to resolve their issue during call reviews.

However, there’s just so many things that we simply cannot fix within one phone call. Even with applying empathy and all your gained knowledge of working here for months or years, many issues take more than 5 minutes to fix. We have to wait on responses from other departments or an agent from a different department to troubleshoot an issue on site or over the internet, whatever the situation may be. Or maybe the issue is that we have no way of assisting the customer to fix their issue the way that they want.

Therefore, when that customer gets a chance to submit a survey it’s going to be another way to complain that we didn’t do what they wanted. Then that just tanks our metrics. It’s disheartening that not being able to be a magician and instantly wave my wand to make everything all better, and that causes us to be punished for it. And there’s nothing we can do to make the customer feel happy that we cant fix their issue.

Customer surveys, feedback, whatever your company you calls them, is held way too high in regards to our jobs. I’m not sure about the rest of you but if the call center, you work at is like mine, this potentially affects things like pay raises, bonuses, potential promotions, and employment among other things.

I completely understand as to why this would be so important. The company does not want a handful of employees that answer phones to be constantly rude and not helpful to their customers. That’s the point of the job. You’re supposed to be assisting with issues that people call about and to make the customer feel as if they are heard and respected. No one wants to call to discuss an issue only to met with hostility, sarcasm, and defensiveness.

Alternatively, that’s the same behavior we’re facing from customers every single day. Many customers are calm and collected, but others call in to complain about a multitude of reasons. Anything short of completely waiving their bill off, or pushing some magic button to instantly fix the issue they are calling for, some customers are just going to be angry. Management knows this and may give some slack in terms of how much you tried to resolve their issue during call reviews.

However, there’s just so many things that we simply cannot fix within one phone call. Even with applying empathy and all your gained knowledge of working here for months or years, many issues take more than 5 minutes to fix. We have to wait on responses from other departments or an agent from a different department to troubleshoot an issue on site or over the internet, whatever the situation may be. Or maybe the issue is that we have no way of assisting the customer to fix their issue the way that they want.

Therefore, when that customer gets a chance to submit a survey it’s going to be another way to complain that we didn’t do what they wanted. Then that just tanks our metrics. It’s disheartening that not being able to be a magician and instantly wave my wand to make everything all better, and that causes us to be punished for it. And there’s nothing we can do to make the customer feel happy that we cant fix their issue.

Working with the general public for long enough you’ll run across people who aren’t difficult due to their negative attitude, but for not grasping social cues. Thinking of Sheldon from the big bang theory. While people speak in more vague or general language, that doesn’t work for this person and must have everything defined and precise.

This is also why our job exist. We would assist customers find information they can’t, or won’t, normally be able to do so online. I’m glad to help customers, but there are times in which it gets annoying when persistent correction and playing 20 questions becomes irritating.

Example of this is from a call I took earlier this week. I work at an electric utility company and it appeared this person was in the process of moving.

Customer:
Can you all run new wires and sockets into a trailer?

Me:
Alright so moving into a new trailer —(interrupted)

Customer:
It’s not new. It’s an old trailer that needs new sockets and wires.

Me:
Oh ok. So moving into the trailer from the one you love now —(interrupted)

Customer:
I don’t live in a trailer now. I live in a house.

Me:
My mistake. You’ll have to contact an electrician to run the new sockets and wires inside the trailer. The electric company —(interrupted)

Customer:
What about that one company that does it for free? Yall gave me the number to call them last time.

(In some states there’s a state run community action agency that what we call weatherizes the home. Sealing windows and doors where air escapes, tunes up appliances, etc. that does this for free if you qualify. I look this up and give her the phone number to call)

Customer:
So this is the company that runs wires and sockets for free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
That’s not the name of the company last time I called.

Me:
Oh really? Do you recall the name of the company that did it the last time you called?

Customer:
……no. So you’re sure they’ll run wires and sockets for free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
You’re sure it’s free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
Why is it free?

Me:
It’s a state run agency. They receive funding from the state.

Customer:
So I just call this number and they’ll do my sockets and wires for free?

BRUH! I’m just trying to help you! Wtf is it you don’t get?!

Working with the general public for long enough you’ll run across people who aren’t difficult due to their negative attitude, but for not grasping social cues. Thinking of Sheldon from the big bang theory. While people speak in more vague or general language, that doesn’t work for this person and must have everything defined and precise.

This is also why our job exist. We would assist customers find information they can’t, or won’t, normally be able to do so online. I’m glad to help customers, but there are times in which it gets annoying when persistent correction and playing 20 questions becomes irritating.

Example of this is from a call I took earlier this week. I work at an electric utility company and it appeared this person was in the process of moving.

Customer:
Can you all run new wires and sockets into a trailer?

Me:
Alright so moving into a new trailer —(interrupted)

Customer:
It’s not new. It’s an old trailer that needs new sockets and wires.

Me:
Oh ok. So moving into the trailer from the one you love now —(interrupted)

Customer:
I don’t live in a trailer now. I live in a house.

Me:
My mistake. You’ll have to contact an electrician to run the new sockets and wires inside the trailer. The electric company —(interrupted)

Customer:
What about that one company that does it for free? Yall gave me the number to call them last time.

(In some states there’s a state run community action agency that what we call weatherizes the home. Sealing windows and doors where air escapes, tunes up appliances, etc. that does this for free if you qualify. I look this up and give her the phone number to call)

Customer:
So this is the company that runs wires and sockets for free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
That’s not the name of the company last time I called.

Me:
Oh really? Do you recall the name of the company that did it the last time you called?

Customer:
……no. So you’re sure they’ll run wires and sockets for free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
You’re sure it’s free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
Why is it free?

Me:
It’s a state run agency. They receive funding from the state.

Customer:
So I just call this number and they’ll do my sockets and wires for free?

BRUH! I’m just trying to help you! Wtf is it you don’t get?!

Working with the general public for long enough you’ll run across people who aren’t difficult due to their negative attitude, but for not grasping social cues. Thinking of Sheldon from the big bang theory. While people speak in more vague or general language, that doesn’t work for this person and must have everything defined and precise.

This is also why our job exist. We would assist customers find information they can’t, or won’t, normally be able to do so online. I’m glad to help customers, but there are times in which it gets annoying when persistent correction and playing 20 questions becomes irritating.

Example of this is from a call I took earlier this week. I work at an electric utility company and it appeared this person was in the process of moving.

Customer:
Can you all run new wires and sockets into a trailer?

Me:
Alright so moving into a new trailer —(interrupted)

Customer:
It’s not new. It’s an old trailer that needs new sockets and wires.

Me:
Oh ok. So moving into the trailer from the one you love now —(interrupted)

Customer:
I don’t live in a trailer now. I live in a house.

Me:
My mistake. You’ll have to contact an electrician to run the new sockets and wires inside the trailer. The electric company —(interrupted)

Customer:
What about that one company that does it for free? Yall gave me the number to call them last time.

(In some states there’s a state run community action agency that what we call weatherizes the home. Sealing windows and doors where air escapes, tunes up appliances, etc. that does this for free if you qualify. I look this up and give her the phone number to call)

Customer:
So this is the company that runs wires and sockets for free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
That’s not the name of the company last time I called.

Me:
Oh really? Do you recall the name of the company that did it the last time you called?

Customer:
……no. So you’re sure they’ll run wires and sockets for free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
You’re sure it’s free?

Me:
Yes ma’am.

Customer:
Why is it free?

Me:
It’s a state run agency. They receive funding from the state.

Customer:
So I just call this number and they’ll do my sockets and wires for free?

BRUH! I’m just trying to help you! Wtf is it you don’t get?!