Absurd requests/demands

[Giggity]

Would any of you consider a color request from a school for a dance to be absurd?  Say, student council says everyone should wear white or black to the Homecoming Dance?  With two weeks prior notice to buy said dress?  (And shoes, and alterations)

I don't care when it shows up. That is flat-out ludicrous.

[Margo]

Would any of you consider a color request from a school for a dance to be absurd?  Say, student council says everyone should wear white or black to the Homecoming Dance?  With two weeks prior notice to buy said dress?  (And shoes, and alterations)

I don't care when it shows up. That is flat-out ludicrous.

Yes, it's absurd. Especially at such short notice.

If you want to have a theme of any kind, it needs to be there when the invitations (or equivalent) first go out, and for something such as homecoming which (as I understand it - we don't have this in the UK) is supposed to be for eveyone, you need to make sure that your theme is optional, or yu interpret it very broadlty so you are not disadvnataging theose with lower budgets or more restricted resources.

[LadyClaire]

Man alive! You people have had some terrible bosses. How do these people function? What actually goes through their minds. Can you just imagine what it would be like to be married or related to these people.

Yep. They're probably like that towards their family members, too. My Dad would threaten to drop me from the health or car insurance if I didn't do whatever unreasonable thing it was he wanted done. When I got old enough to pay for those things myself and have my own policies, he tried to get me fired from my job if I didn't do what he wanted (we worked for the same university, but in totally different departments. Needless to say he did not succeed).

How did he keep HIS job after that stunt???

The CEO/VP was very buddy-buddy with my father, and overlooked any number of things. It finally got to the point where my dad's craziness couldn't be overlooked anymore, and he was eventually fired after getting arrested for pulling a gun on someone. I transferred to a different campus after that whole mess.

[LadyClaire]

Would any of you consider a color request from a school for a dance to be absurd?  Say, student council says everyone should wear white or black to the Homecoming Dance?  With two weeks prior notice to buy said dress?  (And shoes, and alterations)

I don't care when it shows up. That is flat-out ludicrous.

Yep. Absolutely ridiculous. Especially with two weeks notice.

[Thipu1]

These dances often have themes such as 'Blue Hawaii' or 'April in Paris'.  The theme is announced as soon as the date of the dance is set.

There will be people who gear their outfits to the theme but this should be strictly voluntary.  Announcing a dress code two weeks before the event is ridiculous.

[CakeBeret]

This is the story of how I was uninvited from my own trip by a third party.

DH and I go to a tattoo artist about 2 hours away. We are both getting new tattoos, and DH's cousin Billy wants to get one as well. We made an appointment to go see our tattoo guy next month. We asked DH's sister Marie to watch our DS for the day (we will pay her) and I took time off work.

Billy and Marie are close, and apparently Billy told Marie it would be okay if she and DS came along with us. It's completely ridiculous to take a 2-year-old to an all-day tattooing appointment, even if you do have someone there to watch him. And we know that if DH and I are there, Marie won't actually watch DS much at all. There is also a logistics issue, so Marie going was pretty much impossible. [Billy didn't think things through, but he was just clueless.] So DH talked to Marie and explained why it really wouldn't work out. Since she wanted to go along to spend time with DH and Billy, they agreed that they will hang out all together another time. Everything was fine and dandy, until...

DH got a call from Joe, Marie's boyfriend. Joe lit into DH about how it's "just not right" to exclude Marie, how he shouldn't be using her (by paying her $10/hour and a free oil change?), and said that we need to find a way to include her. Remember that this is about logistics as much as the fact that Marie was going to be watching DS.

Finally Joe says, "Well, I'm sure CakeBeret won't mind then." Mind what, you ask? "She'll have to stay home with DS so Marie can go."

Oh no. Oh heck no. This is the trip that *I* planned. The trip that I took time off work for. The trip on which I'm supposed to be getting a tattoo. But Joe thinks I should spend my time off work staying home with DS so Marie can go and hang out. If Marie doesn't want to watch DS, that's fine, we can find another sitter, no problem. But I'm not staying home just so she can go on *my* trip.

DH replied, "You have got to be out of your [expletive] mind." Joe said no he wasn't, it was the only solution. DH hung up on him.

As it turns out, Marie is now furious with Joe for interfering, because she is perfectly fine with not going. She agrees that it's ridiculous to expect me to stay home. So we're proceeding according to plan and everyone except Joe is happy.

[Seraphia]

This is the story of how I was uninvited from my own trip by a third party.

DH and I go to a tattoo artist about 2 hours away. We are both getting new tattoos, and DH's cousin Billy wants to get one as well. We made an appointment to go see our tattoo guy next month. We asked DH's sister Marie to watch our DS for the day (we will pay her) and I took time off work.

Billy and Marie are close, and apparently Billy told Marie it would be okay if she and DS came along with us. It's completely ridiculous to take a 2-year-old to an all-day tattooing appointment, even if you do have someone there to watch him. And we know that if DH and I are there, Marie won't actually watch DS much at all. There is also a logistics issue, so Marie going was pretty much impossible. [Billy didn't think things through, but he was just clueless.] So DH talked to Marie and explained why it really wouldn't work out. Since she wanted to go along to spend time with DH and Billy, they agreed that they will hang out all together another time. Everything was fine and dandy, until...

DH got a call from Joe, Marie's boyfriend. Joe lit into DH about how it's "just not right" to exclude Marie, how he shouldn't be using her (by paying her $10/hour and a free oil change?), and said that we need to find a way to include her. Remember that this is about logistics as much as the fact that Marie was going to be watching DS.

Finally Joe says, "Well, I'm sure CakeBeret won't mind then." Mind what, you ask? "She'll have to stay home with DS so Marie can go."

Oh no. Oh heck no. This is the trip that *I* planned. The trip that I took time off work for. The trip on which I'm supposed to be getting a tattoo. But Joe thinks I should spend my time off work staying home with DS so Marie can go and hang out. If Marie doesn't want to watch DS, that's fine, we can find another sitter, no problem. But I'm not staying home just so she can go on *my* trip.

DH replied, "You have got to be out of your [expletive] mind." Joe said no he wasn't, it was the only solution. DH hung up on him.

As it turns out, Marie is now furious with Joe for interfering, because she is perfectly fine with not going. She agrees that it's ridiculous to expect me to stay home. So we're proceeding according to plan and everyone except Joe is happy.

I've written about this on here before, but someone tried to hijack a trip of mine once too.

A friend and I were going on a shopping trip with a gift card I had won. About a week before this trip was supposed to happen, I got a call from Friend.

"Hey, I was talking to Friend B about our shopping trip, and she needs some things from that store too. Could she come?" I said sure, the more the merrier.

A couple days go by. I get another call from Friend A.

"I talked to Friend B again, but she doesn't really want to drive all the way out there, and she can't pay me gas money. She was thinking you should just come out this way, is that ok? Also, instead of Friday, she wants to go Saturday."

Ummm...what? So, so many things wrong with that, not the least of which was that it would tack an extra 40 minutes on to my driving time for the "privilege" of having this second person inviting herself along on my dime. Not to mention that I had picked Friday because I had to work Saturday.

I told Friend A that she and Friend B were welcome to go on their own shopping trip, but I was taking my trip in my town, with my gift card, on the day I picked, whether they came or not. Friend B decided that the possibility of free things was worth the inconvenience of a free ride to a different town, came, and pouted when numerous free things, not covered by my one gift card, were not forthcoming.

[faithlessone]

It really amazes me sometimes how self-centred and/or oblivious some people can be!!

I think the most absurd request I ever got was in my third year of university. I was the secretary of the Archaeology society, and it was my job to print up some flyers for the Fresher's Fair (an event in the first week of term where all the clubs and societies advertise for new members).

As this event is a massive deal at our uni, and it was the first time we'd had a stall, I got these flyers sorted out well in advance, during the summer holiday. I submitted a copy to our President about four weeks before the fair, and she sent back an email the same day saying that they looked great and I should get them done. So I got 1000 copies printed and stashed them away.

Then, literally on the morning of the fair, the President took a look at the flyers I was setting out, and said: "Actually, I think these would be better on blue paper. And could you change the circular bubbles to stars? And that font looks a bit grown up - maybe you could choose something a bit more fun? Oh, and even though I said A5, what I meant was A4."

With roughly an hour to go until the students descended.

Luckily, I wasn't duty bound to her or anything, so all I did was laugh, and tell her that she could do anything she wanted, but we were using mine first!

[RegionMom]

Re: the homecoming dance request for black and white colors-

An announcement of the dress-up days is given two weeks in advance (think nerd day, school colors day, hero day, Disney day, crazy hat day, etc...) Most kids raid their parents' closet, and get creative.  This is not a rent costume thing, but just dress down fun since the kids wear assigned uniforms daily.

This year, the student council decided to add a color theme to the dance.  Some parents are saying, "they have to wear a uniform to school, this dance is a rare opportunity to show some personality.  And now we are told black and white?"

Plus, white after labor day?      

IF I can find a dress on sale, maybe.  But we bought two dresses (one in springtime with a friend out of town, and one as an impulse sale for her b-day with her grandma) knowing that school and holiday dances/parties were coming up, and both dresses were uber cute.  Neither are black or white. 

DS says he is going to get arm tat temporary sleeves and go goth.  All black.   

[Giggity]

That's different. A day at school is not the same thing as an evening at a dance. The clothing type differs.

[Gwywnnydd]

DS says he is going to get arm tat temporary sleeves and go goth.  All black.   

I like the way your DS thinks =)

[NyaChan]

DS says he is going to get arm tat temporary sleeves and go goth.  All black.   

I like the way your DS thinks =)

Cool   I love it when people follow the letter of the law but use creativity to make it fun.

[hermanne]

DS says he is going to get arm tat temporary sleeves and go goth.  All black.   

I like the way your DS thinks =)

Cool   I love it when people follow the letter of the law but use creativity to make it fun.

I think I posted this before but it fits here.

When my dad was in high school they held a dance. The dress code was for the boys to wear jackets and ties, so some of the guys showed up in the most god-awful jackets and ties imaginable.

The school worded the dress code more carefully after that.

[TootsNYC]

last time I checked, having a family is NOT a good excuse to do something for one employee over another.

That was the reason, many decades ago, why it was acceptable to pay a man more than a woman for exactly the same job.  He was supporting his family.  She just spent her income on fripperies like clothes and makeup and magazines.   Or else she just worked to "have something to do" instead of lying on the sofa eating bon-bons and watching soap operas.  Because some man was really supporting her, you know, either her husband or her father.  Self-supporting single women were myths.

It was less that she was spending it on fripperies and more than she was only 1 person and so her expenses were expected to be lower.
She was thought to be renting a flat, not purchasing a house; she only had to feed and clothe 1 person, not 4.

[jedikaiti]

DS says he is going to get arm tat temporary sleeves and go goth.  All black.   

I like the way your DS thinks =)

Cool   I love it when people follow the letter of the law but use creativity to make it fun.

I think I posted this before but it fits here.

When my dad was in high school they held a dance. The dress code was for the boys to wear jackets and ties, so some of the guys showed up in the most god-awful jackets and ties imaginable.

The school worded the dress code more carefully after that.

I had an uncle who, as a student, was forever in trouble, and constantly at war with his principal. In one instance, the principal made a rule that if any male student wore pants that had belt loops on them, he had to wear a belt. My uncle, who hated wearing a belt, cut the loops off his jeans.