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s a mother of three boys, I often find myself quoting a line from the movie Rush Hour: “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” In raising children I have found that they all have one thing in common: They don’t listen! They may hear you, they may answer you, but most of what is said never makes it from their ears to their brains.
Unfortunately, children are not the only ones who don’t listen. Many adults hear without listening. I have worked in the retail field for the past seven years and I have encountered this countless times, both with customers and fellow employees. The deli that I work in was recently expanded to include a pizzeria which opened 3 months ago. There is an adjoining door connecting the two areas and a rather large sign over the door saying Pizza and Subs. I can’t count how many people I have to tell every day that they must order their pizzas from the pizzeria and not the deli. These are not new customers. The store is in a very small town that has the same core customers come in every day. These individuals just refuse to listen. They hear me tell them to go next door to the pizzeria and they walk over there, but the very next day the same people are back at the deli looking for pizzas. I am also guilty of not listening when I should. For example, this past Christmas my mother came to visit. She took a train from NYC to Rochester which is about a 6 hour trip and I had to meet her at the station. Rochester is about 80 miles from my house so it’s a fairly long drive. The night before she was due to arrive she called me to tell me she had to postpone the trip for a day. I was busy at the time and had the phone on speaker. I was to busy to listen to what she was saying so the following day I was getting ready to drive 80 miles to meet her until my son, who for once was listening, reminded me that she wasn’t coming till the following day.
We are all busy individuals. The world we live in today...