i dealt with my first irate parent today. it's always good to walk into a child-family-team meeting and have your client's mother yell, "what are YOU doing here?" like you carry some highly-contagious debilitating disease. well, ma'am, i'm here to look out for your daughter's best interest, which obviously you have failed to take care of, else we would not find ourselves spending a thursday morning at the guidance clinic discussing an appropriate placement for your severely traumatized daughter whom you refuse to allow back in your house. i understand that this line is probably hard to swallow coming from me, but c'mon lady -- i'm the best thing your daughter's got going for her right now. not to mention her constitutional right to an attorney ...
people just really hate lawyers and think that nothing good can come from one. i'm used to this and do not get offended that 90% of people i meet find it necessary to tell me their favorite lawyer joke immediately upon learning of my profession. after all, when i was in third grade, i wrote a paper about how i wanted to be an accountant when i grew up -- but anyway definitely NOT a lawyer since i didn't want to be someone that my dad makes fun of at the dinner table every night. side note: praise the lord i'm not an accountant. i do find it unfortunate though, since i try really really hard to do what's best for my clients and make a difference in their lives. even if it's just by being the only adult who will listen to them or sharing a story from my own youth.
i think my parent felt better after the CFT was over and she realized that i really was only in attendance to raise hell to make sure my client doesn't spend a single extra unnecessary moment in detention. i apologized to her afterwards for being defensive (a peril of being a defense attorney i suppose) and she actually shook my hand.
in the past 9 months or so i have become increasingly and uncharacteristically tolerant of others. although i definitely still have a problem relating to WHY people do things that they do, i am convinced that they have their reasons and that these reasons probably make perfect sense to them. and that's good economics -- even if it seems ridiculous to me. all bitchy people are probably just having a bad day. all people who fail to return my phone calls are probably just really busy. all white trash are probably just inevitable products of their upbringing. anyone who knew me in high school would be shocked to hear this, since back then every misstep was a personal affront to me and deserved an ass-kicking (even if in the form of a silent battle).
i'm definitely getting old(er) and mellow(er). i'm sure i'm still a huge pain in the ass, but i've learned to pick my battles. at age 25, woot.
20 March 2008
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3 comments:
i think that was 7th grade...not third.
parents are a tricky breed to work with...if you ever figure them out...
but let's hope the ones you come in contact with realize you are looking out for their kid. remember, there is no test to parenthood! it is trial and error...some do better than others.
congrats on maturing (as opposed to growing older!)...a bit!
work often forces us to mature. imagine if what i wanted to say came out to each patient... " you know if you didnt weigh five hundred pounds and watched what you ate, maybe your diabetes wouldnt be so bad and you'd still have two legs instead of none. just maybe"
I'm silently laughing at karrie's comment as not to wake her. :) It's hard to have tact sometimes, ok, most of the time, and hopefully I'll manage to have a lot more by the time I start working with families at the funeral home! :)
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