Tag Archives: expectations

What Are Your Customer’s Expectations?

We often talk here in the Home Business blog about what our expectations are for ourselves and our businesses, and we also chat a little about customer service—but one thing that comes into play in our businesses is that our prospects, clients and customers have expectations of what they will receive from our business and how well we meet those expectations will influence our success. The tough thing is that we might not even know or understand what those expectations are! Think of your own experiences as a customer or purchaser—when you go to a restaurant, you may be expecting … Continue reading →

Are You Expecting the Future to be Just Like the Past?

One of the thinking errors we single parents can be guilty of is relying so much on our experiences and our past history and trying to use it to predict the future. This can get us into a place where we expect that things will always stay the same or because we have one (or more) “failed” relationships, lost jobs, personal struggles—then we will definitely have more in the future. Using our past experiences as a means to try to predict the future can get us stuck and get us into trouble with our self-esteem and optimism. I know that … Continue reading →

Hospitality -part 2

Yesterday we looked at the command to practice hospitality and saw some problems I encountered largely caused by expectations, sometimes of others, but more often my own ideas about the way it should happen. Several things happened to change my view about hospitality. First, a young single man said he always felt relaxed and welcomed in our home and enjoyed not only the meals but our company, ‘because we were relaxed.’ I never had the heart to tell him that beforehand I was anything but relaxed. But his words encouraged me. Second, I started to realize that people were coming … Continue reading →

Are You Putting Pressure on Yourself with Deadlines and Expectations?

Single parenting can be tough enough–without our putting extra pressure on ourselves by setting unreasonable deadlines of having expectations that we can accomplish more than is reasonable. It might be easy to blame the “world” or our jobs or other outside influences when things get really stressful–but we might be bringing some of this stress on ourselves! This morning I was up early–let us just say it was still rather dark outside–and before I even turned on my computer to start working, I was fussing trying to get some packages wrapped. I kept thinking of the “deadline” of getting all … Continue reading →

Setting the Expectation for Other Family Members

As single parents, and as the head of our families, I think we have the responsibility to set the “tone” for what is expected in our families. We do have the power to set expectations for other family members and friends about how we want our families to be dealt with, addressed and how we want our children to be treated… One of the things I will not tolerate is people sharing a “poor you” attitude with my children or myself in regard to our single parent status. I have never been on board with comments that my children have … Continue reading →

Great Expectations

This is another blog about how my feelings didn’t quite match up to my beliefs when put to the test. Is it easier to accept that our adopted children have special needs than it is with our birth children? To be sure, knowing ahead of time helps. We adopted our first daughter knowing there was a 50-50 chance she’d need open heart surgery within two years. It was a common, “routine” operation, we were assured, and we glibly proceeded with plans. One day I stopped short and realized that if someone told me my birth son, then a toddler, would … Continue reading →

Make Sure They Know if it is Voluntary or Not

One of the communication “issues” that comes up in our household is when I will make a “suggestion” that seems pretty clear and obvious to me as something I expect my children to do—but what they hear is that I have just made a suggestion and they get to choose whether to respond or not. Who’s at fault? Well, most likely me for not making sure that I let them know when a task or activity is voluntary, and when it is required. You would think I would know by now that if I say something like: “I would like … Continue reading →

What Did You Expect Would Happen????

I am constantly amazed at the way my kids can use denial. Despite being warned and told the consequences of behavior they exhibit or choices they make, they still get quite surprised when things go down the way Mom predicted they might. I do admire their tenacity, however, as they insist upon doing things their way and expecting miraculous results. But, I still can’t help but ask them what they expected to happen differently? How did they not see the inevitable coming? Of course, when I stop to think about it, I have not completely grown out of this little … Continue reading →

How Realistic Are Your Expectations?

I remember years ago when I had tiny children and found myself increasingly parenting on my own–there would be weeks where I was solo parenting and I had certainly never expected that I would be “that kind of parent.” That hadn’t been the agreement I had with my husband and my children’s father, after all! We were going to do everything 50/50, or so he had promised. Over time, I learned all sorts of important lessons about parenting on one’s own—enough so that when it became apparent that I was “almost” on my own and the marriage was over, I … Continue reading →

Balancing Expectations With Reality

Having expectations is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, our expectations can guide us in the direction of our dreams, help us strive to become better people and develop new skills, and expectations can be a form of hope that gives us reason to get up in the mornings. It is also natural for parents to have expectations when it comes to their children—behavior, academics, sports, talent, etc. can all be areas where we carry expectations for our children. It is important, however, to find a way to balance our expectations with reality. In moderation, I think that letting … Continue reading →