I have realized an astonishing (perhaps to myself only) fact about myself: I don't take criticism or correction well unless I have requested it.
Now, I realize, rather abashedly, that many of you might be smiling and rolling your eyes about now, since this fact may have been more obvious to you than to myself.
Nevertheless, I am surprised. And sad. And hoping I remember this long enough to seek out and get a thorough change of heart on the matter.
Mrs. Farmer, our landlady, mentioned that our water bill has gone up rather drastically lately. (We share a water meter with her barbershop, so they pay the water bill, and water is included in our rent.) I thought about all the possible reasons for the increase... Some are that Sienna has potty trained, we have an additional baby (we have more laundry, including some cloth diapers), I'm drinking more since I'm nursing, our toilet has been running now and then, and we were hand washing our dishes for a few weeks, which I believe actually used more water than the dishwasher.
Yesterday, she mentioned the matter again, stating that the bill was $15 more than usual and would I please refrain from watering my garden when rain is expected. She also said she found the water left on so long last tuesday, that it ran out of the garden and down the driveway! I felt ashamed and assured her that I have only watered minimally (once a week on average), and I would be more careful to not leave the water on. I have been very careful about not leaving it on all summer, in fact. But, I missed it once, apparently...
This morning I realized that, with my plants beginning to wilt and me never even hearing what the weather will be, that our verbal agreement would not meet my needs at all. I need to come to an arrangement with her that allows me to water my garden as I need to and her and her husband to feel that we are paying a fair amount on the water bill.
Now, for the criticism part.
Today, when I approached her about the matter, she was very appreciative and kind, except for a few details. One, her garden 1/2 a mile away is doing great without any watering. Two, our weeds sure absorb a lot of moisture!
And, this allowed me to gain the useful realization that I am sensitive to criticism. I assured her that, with my squash plants turning brown around the edges, my garden is not okay without watering. And I accepted her criticism of our amount of weeds. But it sure didn't feel good. ;-) I am glad to find out where my pride has been lurking. Now its time to pull that weed.
We shall see how I do.
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3 comments:
Yes, I laughed BUT it is because you are soooo not alone in having difficulty taking criticism...many of us have that problem. You may conquer that before others because you recognize it and want to change.
On to your water problem...there are hose/faucet timers that you can get and maybe you can use that in your renewed negotiations. Its awful easy to forget you have a hose on. Can't tell you how many times we turned our hose on to bring the pool level up and later realized we left it on hours too long. Also, you are right--it does take less water to wash dishes with the diswasher. Good luck with your landlady and water usage.
second one - workout done!
yes i laughed and rolled my eyes about that one, but then i do have to completely agree with mom on that one and remember my times.
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