I'm giving a talk in the morning...someone just called to ask if I planned to offend his 10 year old

[Amerigo Vespucci]

"I'm coming to the meeting tomorrow, and I'm bringing my ten year old daughter because normally my wife has custody of her on Wednesdays but I have her tomorrow and I just wanted to know if there was going to be anything said that I should be concerned about if I have my ten year old daughter with me"

(This is a business group for PROFESSIONAL ADULTS...it is not "kid friendly," and calling me up the night before the talk and asking me to assure him that I would be "kid friendly" just pressed all the wrong buttons)...

...so I just pressed the "reply message" key on my cell phone...didn't want to talk to the guy "live" in the mood I am in today...and said "I don't know what to tell you, Steve. I don;t havethe intention of saying anything that would offend anyone at any age, but I did not write my talk for a ten-year-old audience. If you're concerned, maybe you could call (the person in charge of scheduling) and ask for another speaker tomorrow."

OR he could fucking STAY HOME and babysit, or take his daughter somewhere other than a BUSINESS MEETING FOR PROFESSIONAL ADULTS.

Plus, how much fun is going to be for her? Not much, I imagine.

:grr:

[BuelahWitch]

1. Shouldn't the kid be in school?

:shrug: Are they on summer vacation already?

[Duer 157099]

2. I have so many questions

What is a "reply message" key on a cell phone? How does that work?

What is the topic of the talk, if I may ask?

But yeah, the guy has major chutzpa.

I wonder how it would go if you redid all your slides in cartoon format?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. "Reply Message"...

...when you are listening to voice mail, you are given the option to send a reply, rather than close out voice mail and dial the number as a new call. I forget what key I was prompted to press, but voice mail says "Press (fill in the blank)." So I did, because if I talked with him "live" I woulda blown my stack.

The topic is "Handling Difficult Customers"...particularly ones who have behaved in an "unfair" manner (a PERFECT topic for a ten year old kid).

I wanted to say "Steve, I'm not going to be doing a Barney talk" but I bit my tongue and just said what I shared in the OP.

[XemaSab]

3. Tell the guy that you were planning on demonstrating

anal stimulation techniques for straight males with your wife as the "top." :P

[Amerigo Vespucci]

5. He called back, and...

...apparently wasn't satisfied with the level of detail I gave him, saying "I was hoping to know more about the CONTENT of your talk," and I didn't reply. Screw him. I'm a pretty capable public speaker and have been given positive feedback from multiple sources. I mix humor with energy and engage my audience pretty quickly, but this kid is going to be bored. really, really bored. It's not subject matter for a ten year old. If he's got her for the day, he should take her to breakfast at a nice restaurant or something, not to a business networking group filled with grown men and no kids her age.

[raccoon]

6. This man must think the world revolves around him. I agree, screw him.

You handled it in a professional manner.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. I just got back...he stayed home, he did the right thing.

I was disappointed that he made the call in the first place, but in the end, he did what was right. This was a "heavy" talk, one about how to act professionally when your clients are poised to take unfair advantage of you...not the place for a ten year old girl.

:patriot:

[MicaelS]

8. You're too nice.....

I would have flat told him this was a meeting for as professional adults, and it is inappropriate to bring a minor. And the other professionals there would probably be offended by you bringing your child to their meeting.