Multi-taking drains your brain.

Both my sons are now adults.  When they were younger, if I gave them a couple of chores or tasks at the same time, usually nothing was done.  Or it wasn’t done correctly.  Hmm…as adults the same seems to be true now.  Not sure if the problem is me or that kids don’t listen to their parents.  That is a long story for another blog.  In another publication like Psychology Today perhaps.

My point is that if I wanted the grass cut, picked up and bagged and then asked for the dandelions to be plucked, I usually was met by a blank stare. Sometimes I thought to myself, this is a great manipulation technique to get Dad to show them how it was done and when I completed it, I got the, “Oh now I know.”  And then it’s done!  By Dad! Foolish Dad!

Let’s be honest, even when there are a lot of tasks, things get missed and sometimes tasks are not completed to perfection.  As both my sons will confirm, my ideas of perfection were not the same as theirs.  As I got older, I may have mellowed.  Again, my sons may disagree.  

Not this is not a blog on psychology between a parent and child.

Jewellery repair with a long list.

Let me go to the business of jewellery repairs. It is not unusual for a client to bring in an item that needs many items repaired.  In the last week, several items that have been worn for decades with little upkeep came into the store.  For example, a thirty-year-old engagement ring came in.

 It required new center tips because all the tips holding in the diamond were worn out.  The ring also was worn out at the bottom and needed a new ‘shank’.  The ring also needed to be sized up.  As many will attest, fingers, or knuckles do seem to get bigger with age.  Seems like many body parts do that!

This same customer wanted a new band and then all the rings soldered together.  Lastly, the prongs on the side diamonds were fine but were catching all the client’s clothes.  They needed a small bit of polishing and rounding out to solve the issue.  

That is a lot of instructions to write down on our take-in forms.  Sometimes the form runs out of room.  Sometimes, when the client is talking, there may be typos or errors on the form.  As much as I try to be accurate and tell staff to be accurate, small errors can creep in.  I sure don’t want to come and do every repair write-up so that I might have one of those, “Oh now I know” moments.

Then the repair envelope with all the instructions goes to our onsite goldsmiths.  My goldsmiths are talented and diligent.  Sometimes they do miss an item.  

In this client’s case, the small prongs that needed to be polished were missed.  The client found the ring still catchy and brought it back.  For sure that is inconvenient, and I try not to let that happen as each repair goes through a quality control before being released back to the client.

The major take-away from this missed item is that with onsite goldsmiths, the repair goes from hand to hand in the store.  The problem can be fixed in minutes or at worst a few days.  Go to a store without that option and any mistake, reasonable or not, may take weeks to fix and get back.

Now you can say, “Oh now I know.”