Negotiations with the Shipping department

The boys have been helping me with my new company - which I will be publicly announcing next week - they are the shipping department, and part time PR reps. They are enthusiastic helpers, but I wonder if it is efficient or not, productive or not, to have their help. However, I figure this toy company is something I'm devoting time to, they hear me talk about it, so they should have the opportunity to interact with it....if they want.

So ALL the boxes arrived last week and transformed my office and living room. Yes, we live in a NY apartment, so there is motivation to get the company off the ground so the boxes get out of the house!


The plan is ship to friends and family (this is why I'm holding off on the public announcement). Get to preschool (happened with great success on Tuesday). And send out to some former colleagues. Mailers out to potential retailers. Then do the public stuff; press release, blog, send to toy reviewers etc. Everyday I think of more people to tell, which means I'm bound to forget someone along the way; a daunting thought.

So today, I Friday at 2:30 pm, I am exhausted and I still have one more trip to the post office with 35 lbs of boxes to carry. Now the post office is only 2 blocks away, but carrying a bunch of boxes through not empty streets is work! My shoulders are tired beyond belief, and yesterday I even took the stroller to help me carry!

Back to the boys, they now know how to fold the boxes and use the tape "gun". They want to do the labels, but since those require some level of precision, I stick them and they flatten them. When it gets to the mailing, only the Big Boy goes to the post office with me. The Little Man has had the opportunity to give to people in the building and neighborhood, so he's not totally left out.

When we are at the post office, he throws, literally throws, the boxes on the scale while I push all the buttons to get the machine to spit out the stamp. He hands me the stamp, then throws up the next box. The folks at our post office have noticed us. They now ask that we take our boxes to one of the business windows rather than stuff the box that is provided. Obviously, we've already caused a jam by enthusiastically opening and closing the little door.

Going to the business window requires carrying the boxes across the post office, which I am told, "stay there and watch, I can do it myself". I love the energy and enthusiasm. There is also a sense of pride in "doing" the work, but also in "helping". Before we leave, we get to look in the special door where toy company mail appears. This is a real thrill and yesterday we actually had our first piece of mail!

Yesterday, after the post office we hand delivered 10 to friends and family in the hood. Most were dropped of with doormen. So I would stay on the sidewalk with the loot and the Big Boy would give a bag to the doorman and tell them for which apartment. But I noticed each exchange was taking far more than just saying, "this is for apartment 3c. Thank you". So I started to listen.

What he has actually chosen to say, is "This is for apartment 3c. It is a farting elephant. You squeeze his tail and he farts. His name is Norman. It is my mommy's company." To which the doorman always thinks he's heard incorrectly, it is a rather unusual pronouncement, and says something like, "ok, well, uhm, I'll make sure they get the package."

He is so proud to be helping. He's so proud of my little company/the effort. The early impact on the boys has not been what I would have anticipated. They really seem to get it, and that I want this to work. It inspires me to try a bit harder.