With my newfound gratitude, my behavior began to improve, and although she had some residual fear, my mom rehired me for the third time. I had confidence that this would also be the final time; and I was right.
I moved back home my sophomore year of college, and it was time to figure out how to really live in the same space as I worked.
Lesson 1: Mom is in charge, not me. For a while I questioned every task she wanted me to carry out. At the heart of my questioning was the desire to be “in” on the plan. But as any leader knows, you have to serve first, and only then will you be consulted.Lesson 2: EVERY mess I make, I have to clean up. Easy concept. Hard to practice when your house converts into a business. Example: Things that seem “normal” have to be removed. Like your chapstick, the glass you were drinking water from, your bowl of apples (because they WILL be taken). Another example: One event day morning, I made a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon. BACON. When the clients arrived 15 minutes later, the humid, salty smoke still hung in the air (where are my bacon lovers?). From then on, I wasn’t allowed to make bacon at all on an event day, let alone any other food that involved the use of a pan on the stove.
From then on, I wasn’t allowed to make bacon at all on an event day, let alone any other food that involved the use of a pan on the stove.
Lesson 3: People will open every door left unlocked. This is a tricky one because we don’t have nine pairs of eyes. What we figured out worked best is that my “post” would be in the central hub of the house which is the kitchen (for obvious reasons other than architecture; bacon). My mom, however, was EVERYWHERE. She would head out the back door, only to return through the front door, then disappear through the garage, and reappear coming down the back stairs. In addition, we added keyed locks to our bedroom doors, fancy “Private Please” signs to the places that weren’t technically “rented” by our clients, and draped a fancy rope across the opening to our hallway to say “Hey, this is blocked off, look at me blocking.”
When we meet new people and they ask what we do, we respond in short with, “We live in a business.”
“I don’t know how you do it,” they say.
I know, it's crazy, I think, but what an adventure.
