Welcome to Second Listen Saturday on the Parenting Roundabout podcast, where we share some
fun moments from a past episode for your weekend listening pleasure. Look for new
episodes every Monday through Friday. I am confessing to a dumb mistake I made
because as a parent, don't wait too much. You know what, I'm
handling everybody's business, and sometimes something gets mixed up. It can happen.
It's humiliating and mortifying. But let me tell you my tale of woe.
It was time to pay our property tax, which is a ridiculously large amount.
That's a whole other rant, and it's due like on the first of
August, but you have until the tenth to pay it. But I was
really good. I went on August second. I went to the website of
the city. I went on to their incredibly antiquated pay online thing, because
that's what I do now. I don't go line up with all the senior
citizens in city Hall. I pay it online and you have to put in
your checking out number. And I grabbed the little box of checks I have
next to my desk, grabbed a check, typed in the number, checked
it. Everything's great, paid it got the acknowledgement that I paid wonderful.
I kept checking my checking account because I wanted to, you know, see
who the money went out, so i'd know how much I had left.
And I'm looking and I'm looking in like ten days go by, twelve days
go by. Money still there. So I'm thinking, well, you know,
the system is pretty bad that they have for paying online. They're probably
just slow, but you know what, I'm gonna call the tax collector just
in case. Well, they passed me embarrassingly through a few people like like
oh, you know, they look at me up and they go, oh,
let me pass you on to somebody else. So finally again send I
get passed to somebody else and they say, oh, just a minute.
And so finally the person tells me, well, the check the money was
returned for insufficient funds from your bank, so you owe us thirty thirty five
dollars for the fee for that, plus you still owe us the taxes in
a late fee. And so I start going off, you know what,
I paid it early, I paid it on time. I could pay you
a late fee. And I've looked at my bank account. There was nothing
in there. There was no insufficient funds I had plenty of money, and
my bank hasn't said anything. I'm going on and on this lady's going,
it's really not my problem. But you know, I'm like, I know
it's not your problem, but who do I Who do I complain to about
this? And she says, well, you can call the tax collector and
all that. So I said, okay, Well I'm first I was didn't
call my bank. So there's a representative at the bank that I talked to
from time to time. So I called him up and I said, can
you see anything? They're saying it was a return for insufficient funds And he
looks up my thing and he says, oh, I see you have enough
money. No, I don't see anything. There was no check that went
through. He said, is this account such and such? So I grabbed
at the box next to my desk to look at the number and make sure.
And that's the point at which I noticed that in the box with our
checks is one of my son's checks, which I had in there because I
was setting up his direct deposit because that's the kind of thing I do.
And the terrible fund enterest in my head did I enter. He was checking
account number to pay our property tax, because he didn't have the money in
there for that, and so I'm kind of like stopping mid Rant to say
me, it put the wrong number in, and he's like, I bet
you put the wrong number in, because I see no proof of here of
anything like that. And I said, well, let me check that,
and then i'm you know, but I'll be back because I'm sure I didn't
do that. Back. We got to get some proof. So I go
online to my son's checking account, which I know the passwords too, because
I manage all that stuff. And sure enough, there's the property tax charge,
there's the bounced check. There's a thirty five dollars fee on that end
too, and oh my goodness, I've just ranted at a whole bunch of
people when it was my ridiculous mistake. So I had to put my tail
between my legs and go over the tax collector and find the lady who I
had yelled at and say, well, I did a really stupid thing.
I put on my son's checking account number. Here's the check in the fees,
and I'm sorry I yelled at you, but because I don't want to
think that I'm just so looney that I can't tell the difference between a check,
his check and our checks. I think it's because I'm doing too much,
you know. I think it's because I'm handling everybody's stuff. I think
it's because, you know, my desk has little bits of everybody's business on
it. I am, you know, making a phone call for this one.
I am setting up a payment for that one. I am setting up
my payments, my husband's payments. I'm making phone calls for this. Do
you guys feel that way sometimes? Do you feel like you have so many
balls in the air belonging to so many different people that you cannot possibly be
blamed if you drop one? Yes, that seems fair right to if people
would you know, if if if my son would set up his own direct
deposit, this check wouldn't have been on my desk, right, But he
can't, and I want to be in charge of all his finances, so
okay, And you know, it's it's true that some of these things are
my responsibility because I take it. But even so, but if you didn't,
that's true, that that's where it all right, hits the fan,
because yes, someone's gotta do right, So yeah, I just it's just
when something goes bad, it goes bad. It's just stupid and annoying,
an expensive way that they seems there should be a grace, a grace,
a option for this. If you go there and you tell your sad story
and people feel sorry for you, because perhaps they are mothers too, they
should be able to wipe away a late fee, Like, yes, I
was so proud of myself that I paid it early because we just happened to
have gotten, you know, a bunch of paychecks in that week, and
I thought I could pay this spill me. Yeah, so stupid, so
stupid. I can't believe I did that. Have you guys ever done anything
stupid like that? Mixed up an account number or oh, I'm sure I
have paid the wrong thing with the wrong account. I think I called the
bank just a couple of months ago, you know, I was looking at
our bank statement and there was this big, this big bill and it or
this big you know withdrawal that have happened, and I didn't recognize any of
the information, you know, who it was going to. I'm like,
what is this? I call the bank and like, I think this is
a fraudulent charge and I don't know what this is for and I want to,
you know, reverse this charge and you know this is this is fraud.
And you know this patient person right well, you know did you check
this? Did you check that? And finally I was like, uh yeah,
I paid that. I totally Oh no fraud. I'm like, okay,
thanks, by the thanks for your help. Oh surely we're not the
only ones. They called him doing it right, I have to. And
just the other day, my son needed something printed for his part of his
script for his play that he's in. And you know, of course everybody
was running late, and you know I had been telling him for days,
like we need to organize this, we need to get this sorted out.
Finally we went through it and figured out which pages had to be printed because
it was like a two hundred page document. But he didn't need it at
all, and so I we figured it out. We started to print it,
and he came downstairs to get ready to leave. I'm like, well,
where's your script? And then he has to go back upstairs by the
printer. He printed the whole thing. I did not burnt the whole thing
on purpose, if that happened, because it had completely shut down my computer,
like every window was frozen. You know, it was a whole No,
I did not do this on purpose, druck me. I told it
to only print certain pages, and I was getting yeah him, I was
getting you know, which really I can't stand. Yeah. Plus the computer
was completely not functioning, and the times, yeah, oh yeah, there's
definitely. There's lots of moments in my day. I have failed to live
up to my daughter's expectations, oh dear, or I've done something dreadfully wrong
and you know, whether it's moved her key um looked at her text message
while she was texting. Yeah, inadvertently, of course, how dare you?
I know there's a there was pretty recently there was Annie get your gum
cartoon like how to yeah, make your team just I can't remember what it
was hate you or you know, how to drive them crazy? And it
was like yeah, breathe you know, yes, yes, that one big
time Yeah talk to strangers when you just said like, oh what a cute
talk like oh my god, how could yeah Hamatoon I think was one of
them, which is guaranteed to drive my son in two fits of somebody,
my dear you, I sing beautifully, yes, but now I own him
thirty five bucks for the fee that was taken out of I guess I should
be I should be nice for a while. Frustrating, just just I'm chagrined.
Yeah, I hate when that happens, especially when you've got a good
rant going, you know, and then you have to you have to back
down, really say never mind, here, take your money, that's that's
fine. It's the worst you know, I had. I had to go
from right righteous indignation to self clothing on a dime, not a little lightheaded
afterwards. Not fair at all. I'm not fair. Well, I'm sure
this will happen to all of us again, and we may return to share
it here so that we can u