How My Being a Waitress Prepared Me for Motherhood
- multitasking
- list of things in my head
- patience with unreasonable individuals
As a member of the service industry, you learn very quickly how to multitask. I was a college student before I was a waitress, so I already knew how to multitask like a bandit, but being a server hones one’s ability. Now, as a mother, I can entertain a child while making dinner, or change a diaper while tidying up a room.
Every once and a while during a busy shift, my body would try to go to two places at once and I would have to stop and rearrange the list of things in my head. Servers have to remember lots of things at once: which tables need what things, when food needs to be taken out of the kitchen to waiting patrons, and how to assemble various drinks or desserts. Instead of taking the time to write them down (which would just be one more task that there is no time to do), I used to balance these things on a list in my head, which had the added bonus of being able to shuffle them around depending on their changing priority, but the drawback of forgetting some things if there were too many to remember. Several times I had to apologize to customers: “Sorry, it just fell off the list of things in my head.” As a mother, I treasure being able to make a list of things in my head: “laundry, dishes, prep dinner, stop everything to clean up a mess, go back to laundry again, stop in the middle of that to make sure dinner is not overflowing, check on child to avert possible mess, more dinner prep, wasn’t I doing laundry a while ago?"
It is amazing how much a two year old has in common with a fussy guest who thinks that every single person that serves them is the worst server that they’ve ever had. When trying to please them, you occasionally get the same overwhelming urge to scream, “JUST TELL ME WHAT IT IS YOU WANT!” A server can always ask a co-worker to do them a favor by taking the next round of drinks out to the fussy guests. The difference with being a mother is that you love the tiny unreasonable individual, and won’t give up after being rebuffed several times for no reason.
Then I began to think about what would happen if I ever decided to get a waitressing job again. It wasn’t my favorite job ever, but waitressing is pretty lucrative if the restaurant is busy and you can “turn the tables over” quickly enough. I decided that being a mother probably wouldn’t help me make the big bucks as a waitress.
How My Being a Mother Would Be Detrimental to Being a Waitress Again
- “No, you may not have another bowl of chips and salsa. Your dinner will be here any minute.”
- “Did you see the guy at table 32? He’s had 4 refills of soda; drinking too much of that stuff is so bad for him!”
- “I see that you would like something but that you don’t need it right now. Please wait patiently, there is a mess that I need to clean up immediately.”
The biggest difference in these two jobs is when you get paid. As a waitress, I collected a tip after every table of customers left the restaurant, and got a paycheck every couple of weeks. As a mother, I get a “tip” every time I see my daughter being polite without first being prompted, or putting a book away on the shelf when she’s finished reading it instead of tossing it on the floor. But I won’t get my “paycheck” until my kids are old enough for me to see the results of my hard work and to be proud of the people they become.
I definitely like being a mother better than being a waitress. It’s usually slower paced, and I can occasionally sneak a nap in during a “shift.” I am grateful for the things I learned as a waitress that help me do my job as a mother.
It’s time to go on break now, and get some rest before the dinner rush.
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