from HELL - MAKING me rush!!!

[CadenceAlex]

Bank holiday Friday, had no intentions of going to the shop and was at my friends when our other friend 'phoned and said a couple of her nails had snapped off. I only did them on Wednesday. I didn't want to leave them like that as she's a dancer and has to work tonight... so I arranged to meet her at the shop to do them. I don't keep any products at home and only have one lamp... so .. along with my young baby, I drove back from near the town and got to the shop...

.. she turned up with her 7 year old son... en route to the woods to play football and see the bear pit...

.. well, FIVE nails had come off and she breezily told me it was because she had been bowling....

SO, I said I wanted to soak off the remainder of the nails...

'NO!!! That will take ages... just file them off!!' I was really not happy with doing this, and said that it will wreck her nail and I am SURE that I am not supposed to do this... but she insisted. So I did.

Her boy was whinging and whining and kicking his football around my shop, being an absolute monster and telling her to hurry up... and she was telling ME to hurry up!!! I tried to explain that I can't just rush rush rush as I have to prepare the nails... but this was just not good enough.. she was moaning at me to hurry, Damien (not his real name :twisted: ) was whinging at her to hurry and I was sooo stresssed out with the mess being caused in my shop and at the fact that she was eating crisps and messing around (not to mention her boy was kicking his football at the cars)....

.. in the end I snapped at Damien (and believe me, I have the patience of a saint when it comes to other people's kids) and seriously felt like giving my friend enough product to go and do her own nails (thankfully, I was using UV acrylic and there was no way she was gonna get a UV lamp on Good Friday... else the mood I was in, I probably would have done)....

SO, then my daughter starting crying and I just thought, why am I bloody bothering??? So, the last stage was applying the acrylic.. I rushed it on (she was hopping up and down on the chair at this point and Damien was driving me nuts) and put it under the lamp ...

WELL, when it came out of the lamp and I'd buffed the top coat off.. she told me they looked great and wanted them glazing... so I DID. And off they went.

How awful is that???? Then I went out of the back and chainsmoked a few fags but then had to do another set of nails.... but I was so stressed out and grumpy I could barely speak to the girl who's nails I was doing and I felt so bad as my husband had come and taken the baby home for me.

What would you have done in this situation? I felt like screaming at her and saying that I'm not a bloody miracle worker but I was so annoyed that she had gone bowling in the first place with the nails on...

She gave me £15 for doing the nails, and its not really the money thats an issue here.. but I have ended up getting so stressed out...

I really don't want kids coming in my shop and running wild - (my friend does not shout at her boy, she thinks that everything he does wrong is her fault) - it really makes me prickly seeing food being spilt all over my floor and bits of tomato stuck to my nail desk.

What do other people do? Have no kids rules??? No food in shop?

I may sound like I need to 'chill out' a bit, but the spectacle in my shop this afternoon was horrendous and there was loads of passing trade, which I didn't expect. I was soooo embarassed, I wasn't in a uniform and a few people came in asking for business cards. I know if I had gone in a shop like that I'd have never gone back again. What do you think?

Rant over...

<~~~~ exhales deeply and sips more camomile!!!

 

[cantrelax]

I don't own a salon but I think if I did I would definately not allow children in. I know that it can be hard for some mums to find a sitter and I too have had to bring Cameron with me on many occasions but kids will always be kids and salon have loads of fun little nooks and crannys for them to get in to. Besides they get bored and then start to winge and then no one enjoys the treatment. JMOXxxxx

 

[Cathie!]

A nail service should be a treat and I would never ever take my kids to the salon when I had clients to service....in fact I only take MY kids to the salon when it is closed.

 

[Little Angel]

Oh god do i feel for you!
Its such a difficult position! NO FOOD is one rule you should stick to as food and chemicals dont mix!

Personally i would have charged her far more than £15 for calling me out with my baby on good friday!!

She ob knows your a soft touch, i think we are all guilty of that though.

As for the children thing its really hard i make it known that i would rather they DID NOT bring them but if they do they have to behave themselves.

TBH i tell them off if they dont. But then again i am not known for my patience and most of my clients know that :lol:

I cant work well with naughty children around i am too worried what they are touching etc to concentrate!

 

[CadenceAlex]

A nail service should be a treat and I would never ever take my kids to the salon when I had clients to service....in fact I only take MY kids to the salon when it is closed.

Me neither, work is no place for children. My shop WAS closed - I only went up there thinking I'd be there for about half an hour doing two nails. NOT five. And only for a friend. I couldn't turn the other girl away as I am a soft touch, and Damien kept the front door open (thus making it look like we were open) because he bloody well could!!! Grrrr

Need to set my boundaries though, for sure.

And definitely no kids. No kids in there at all. Never again!!!! No food, no kids... hell, no friends after today!!!

How can ANYONE cope doing nails when there are NAUGHTY kids around?

Its a shame because not all children are naughty either, but how do you determine a well behaved child from a badly behaved child?

 

[MINKUS]

sounds like a nightmare senario !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cant concentrate with MY CHILD or anyone ELSES whilst carrying out a treatment.

I know sometimes needs must and all that but.............omg sounds like you had a headache today !

Maybe next time...stand your ground....'sorry its bank holiday and i am not open today !' will work !

amb xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[scratchmyback]

Need to set my boundaries though, for sure.

I think you nailed it right there. Setting boundaries is a difficult thing to do especially when it's a friend. We like to think they are more understanding but sometimes it's completely the opposite.

It all started to unravel when she had 5 off instead of 2....I don't understand though why you wanted to take them off and start all over - am I missing something - why not just replace the missing ones and kick her and her miserable son out the door.

Sorry if I sound harsh but people will take advantage if we let them and you have to remind yourself this is a business, not a hobby.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend hun

Laura

 

[CDN nail chic]

Lesson learned....never answer the phone on holidays.....lol.

Soz just had to add that. It certainly does fray the nerves when people bring their kids. It's not fair on the kids either, they would rather be somewhere else too.

Feet up, enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a Happy Easter!

 

[jac extreme]

try putting a sign on the door "well behaved children only"

 

[lec]

Hi

I agree with Jac, have a sign politly saying something along the lines of Due to chemicals etc that if children have to be brought along with you to your appointment in the salon they are to remain seated and are not to wander around. Oh and no balls, eating allowed!!!!!

Lec X X X

 

[pinkshell_nails]

Lesson learned....never answer the phone on holidays.....lol.

Soz just had to add that. It certainly does fray the nerves when people bring their kids. It's not fair on the kids either, they would rather be somewhere else too.

Feet up, enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a Happy Easter!

I made the mistake of giving a client my mobile number and home number as my daughter was attending her daughters birthday party, in case of emergencies and all that! Well, she only decided to call me at 5pm one eve when i was busy making tea, to ask if she could come round as she had lost 2 nails! I dont even do mobile/home work! Thats why i got a salon, so i didnt have clients coming round! I had to promptly tell her i didnt have any products at home, that this was actually the only day off i have in the week, and i now have a telephone with caller display on, and if i dont recognise the number, i dont answer, just in case! lol!!

 

[rosenails]

Kids are kids and you cannot do about it. Just enjoy, relax and forget about what happen. Happy Easter & God Bless

 

[juwahni]

:irked: Honey, I know exactly what your going through, I have had several of my clients that want to come up to the shop when they know that we are closed on Sundays and Mondays, those are cleaning days and they know it. But it never fails, somene will call and say they need something done, and for awhile I was a pushover,(I guess I was trying to be supernail tech or something lol). I would give in and do them, eventually they would just ASSUME that because I had done it before, I would do it again. I finally had to put my foot down and tell them. I also had problems with clients bringing kids in. Girl they would want to hold them in their lap while I "tried" to do a service for them. And if that didn't beat all, one lady had the nerve to let her precious darling, sit at the owners nail desk, and not watch her, she proceeded to open the dappen dish full of powder and swish it around with a bit from the drill. OMG, I was mortified, one because she had just contaminated an entire dish full of powder, two that the mother was allowing her to do it, and three, there is always the chance that a little one mistakingly take something in a bottle or jar as "something good to eat" or wear, and then what happens if they are allergic, sick, chemically burnt, etc. It's all on you then. My new rule is, and it has been a godsend, if you have to bring your child with you, please try to bring someone with you that will be able to assist during your service, and that due to the potentially hazardous chemicals, under no circumstance is any child to be left unattended. We love kids, but our products and equipment are not kid friendly. I hope this helps some. I know I'm kinda late, i'm still new to the site and still getting the hang of how things work. I'm excited that I found this site, and am able to chat with other professionals about our "daily drama" lol.:lol:

 

[CadenceAlex]

:irked: Honey, I know exactly what your going through, I have had several of my clients that want to come up to the shop when they know that we are closed on Sundays and Mondays, those are cleaning days and they know it. But it never fails, somene will call and say they need something done, and for awhile I was a pushover,(I guess I was trying to be supernail tech or something lol). I would give in and do them, eventually they would just ASSUME that because I had done it before, I would do it again. I finally had to put my foot down and tell them. I also had problems with clients bringing kids in. Girl they would want to hold them in their lap while I "tried" to do a service for them. And if that didn't beat all, one lady had the nerve to let her precious darling, sit at the owners nail desk, and not watch her, she proceeded to open the dappen dish full of powder and swish it around with a bit from the drill. OMG, I was mortified, one because she had just contaminated an entire dish full of powder, two that the mother was allowing her to do it, and three, there is always the chance that a little one mistakingly take something in a bottle or jar as "something good to eat" or wear, and then what happens if they are allergic, sick, chemically burnt, etc. It's all on you then. My new rule is, and it has been a godsend, if you have to bring your child with you, please try to bring someone with you that will be able to assist during your service, and that due to the potentially hazardous chemicals, under no circumstance is any child to be left unattended. We love kids, but our products and equipment are not kid friendly. I hope this helps some. I know I'm kinda late, i'm still new to the site and still getting the hang of how things work. I'm excited that I found this site, and am able to chat with other professionals about our "daily drama" lol.:lol:[/quote

Aaaargggh sound like a nightmare!

Am definitely going to sort signs out about children, as you say, the chemicals are dangerous and you never know, I'd hate to have a little one with scabby skin thanks to some product - or worse, poisoned!!!!

That's the excuse I will use to keep the kids out, anyways!!! :twisted: