First, some background.
RJC goes through headphones the way I go through chocolate. That's a lot. She has broken the wires, had headphones where one side stops working, has screamed because they are "too small" or "too tight" and has broken them in various other creative ways. We have bought various brands, various sizes, various prices. They do not last.
We live in a raised ranch where the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all in close proximity. There is an opening even from the dining room to the kitchen so as a family, we are together. Often. We watch television in the living room and RJC has her spot on the couch where she watches videos on her iPad and listens to music. If she does not use the headphones, the rest of us cannot watch tv. As a side note, even when we are watching tv and she has her headphones, she often breaks into song and we pause our show. We've made the choice to do this because we like having her with us and we've noticed that she picks up conversation around her even when she seems focused on her iPad. We take socialization and communication any way we can get it.
So, fast forward to last night when she is screaming because her headphones are too tight and she wants to throw them away. We try talking it out but there is no way that this gal is using those headphones ever again.
Today, my husband and I go to Staples so we can buy a new set of headphones. We absolutely cannot go one day without them. We look at the choices and we are clueless. Most of them are the ones we have previously bought and then there are the really nice ones that cost a ton of money. Hard to spend that kind of money for her to watch "Barney."
I find a salesman. He is a younger guy, big smile, very nice. We explain our dilemma. We tell him about our daughter and that we need headphones that do not directly go on her ears and that she often and easily breaks them. We discuss the various ones that we were looking at (including a crazy conversation about wireless ones that I won't even go into). Finally he says our best bet is...yup...the crazy expensive ones. In truth, we had pretty much come to that conclusion ourselves but were hoping he had some magical ones we didn't know about in the back room.
We finally decide to take them, along with a 3 year warranty. We never buy warranties. But I swear we scored big with this one the way she kills them. I thank the salesman profusely for all of his help and some good natured bantering goes on as another salesman states that HE was the one who actually found the headphones in the back. It was quite pleasant.
While I am checking out, my husband leaves the store (we had separate cars) and the salesman comments that he loves how my husband and I work together as a team and that it must be important to do so with our situation. He says that it's nice to see a family like ours. I explain that we could not take care of everything if we didn't work together and that we were also lucky to have our other daughter to help. In fact, she had postponed her date with her boyfriend to watch RJC so that we could do this shopping. He was truly touched and then asked another question (can't remember what it was) that led me to share a short story that gave him a better picture of how our family functioned. He was so sweet. Just amazed by what he was hearing and so kind in how he talked about our family.
I left the store incredibly pleased with our purchase.
The best part, however, was that I left feeling really good about us as a family. I felt lucky that we had RJC to pull us together and even luckier that we hadn't fallen apart.
Who would think that a trip to Staples to spend a ridiculous amount of money so that our gal had headphones to watch "Barney" would help me realize how truly lucky I am?
