What Went Wrong at the Kids in the Kitchen Camp?

[jillbean]

:thumbdown:Let's see...I'll try to makeit short!
We were going to have it at the local Museum but there was a mix-up and the aticle that we had counted on for most of the marketing didn't get put into the paper!! So, we had to move the class as we couldn't afford the rent! I had suggested several places but she HAD to have it at her apartment!
So...it's the morning of the class and...
I arrive at her house to find the kitchen dirty! There is stuff piled on her dinning room table where we are suppose to have the display, the ingredients for the recipes are still in grocery bags where she had left them Thursday(I offered to put them away but she said she would do it), her countertops are dirty and the products that we are using for the recipes are nowhere in sight!
So, I go right in and start getting things together. Does she help? No. She gets the phone and sits down on the couch! I thought that was bad until I begin to hear bits and pieces of the conversation! She has loaned out one of the products that we need (over a week ago) and she is going to have to go get it. Our class starts in just over an hour!!
So, she doesn't just hop in her van and go! She puts her makeup on and brushes her teeth and does God knows what in her bedroom for about 10 min. and then she leaves!!
I set everything up (which meant digging through her cabinets to find things), have all the recipes organized, the kids stations set up and everything ready to go and she shows up 5 minutes AFTER the class was to start!!
Then she takes the lead on one of the four recipes that we prepared and sits and does nothing on the others but talk to the parents about her upstairs neighbors fighting and cussing all of the time and about the PC products(after we agreed that this was about the kids not the products!). Did I mention that the parents came to participate WITH the kids and she was keeping them from that?
Then I open the microwave to put one of the recipes in and all I can say is :yuck:!! I quickly pulled the door where, I hope, noone could see the inside and put the recipes in myself!
Since the class ended she has sent me 9 messages(not counting the replies to my replies) about all of the things that I did wrong! How I took over...she wasn't there when we started and hadn't made, and wouldn't try, three of the four recipes!! She also told me how I had told the children that they could ALL use the kitchen sink to wash their dishes and she was going to let half of them use the BATHROOM sink. :yuck::yuck::cry::thumbdown::yuck:
So, we have a class coming up the 26th and i really don't want to have it over there for personal and professional reasons.
She has sent out a message to some of her contacts that we will not be letting any more kids enroll(we aren't up to our enrollment goal and I paid for the materials up front). So, what do you think of spliting the class and relocating half of the class (again)? Not ideal but I don't want to turn kids away or CRAM them in!!

 

[peichef]

all I can say is OMG!!!!! Wow! Yikes!!!how well did you know her before all this?

 

[jillbean]

Not well enough!

 

[jrstephens]

That is horrible!!! I do know how u would stand doing it again! I would haev to sit down and have a MAJOR talk about how it would go and what could be done differently before I agreed to another one!

 

[peichef]

Not well enough!

clearly -lol.

so are you going to go through with the next session. I guess you have to since people have paid. They have paid, right? Who collected the $$ -- you or the other lady?

 

[jillbean]

I have most of the money.
The thing is I want to split the class and relocate half, or so, of the kids to my house.
Now she is saying that she will come down here if she HAS to but I don't want her here. Not after the insults and accusations that she has hurled both presonally or professionally.
And, I just checked my emails and she has sent me like 8 devotionals today. I'm not sure if that is suppose to be a message because she thinks that I have done something wrong or if it is her way of apologizing. At any rate, I don't apperciate it! I am a Christian and love the devotionals but they shouldn't be used in the place of an apology or as a why of preaching!

 

[Teresa Lynn]

this is the first I've read of this is she in your upline, downline what is your connection to her???

 

[Chef Michelle D]

OMG

I would have a talk with her and try to straighten this out but I would relocate and do what you can to make the best of it. She was wrong on so many levels and you don't deserve the way she is treating you. Do what is best for you and your business and try to work it out with her if you can and want to.

 

[stacywhitlow]

this is the first I've read of this is she in your upline, downline what is your connection to her???

I have the same question. I don't think I would do any more classes with her regardless of who she is though.

 

[jillbean]

Teresa,
She is "technically" in another cluster but her upline lives about 3 hours from us. So, my director adopted her. She has been selling since last Nov, as have I , and I thought that we could help each other out by encouraging each other and exchanging ideas. Now, I just feel like she is riding my coattails!

 

[jillbean]

She emailed me about an hour ago to let me know that I shouldn't be counting on her for a Sept. fair that we have had book since May. Actually, there are several ladies but we had time spots together. Anyway she said since each of us are bringing our own display products to change out that she can't do it. She says that she is physically able. I understand that but it is the underlying issue that bothers me.
She was expecting me (I am coordinating) to bring all of my products, set them up and leave them for the whole 4 days of the fair. Again, what is her part? If I am not at the fair I am hoping that i have a show! Besides, to me, that's like someone telling me what tools I can and cannot take to a show. I think that the display should be what THAT consultant loves and is comfortable with. Besides, it shows more products that way and many of the vendors look around each day and there are people that will be there looking at booths more than just one day.
She's just mad because she doesn't think the booth should change and now she will have to put forth some effort.
Sorry about all that but I feel better!!

 

[cathyskitchen]

I would cut your ties with this girl IMMEDIATELY!! She is a LEACH and will keep sucking you dry until you have nothing left. I've met people like this in all different corners of my life (work, neighborhood, school, etc.) and they are better off left alone. Tell her you are going to do the Kids in the Kitchen classes yourself, as you both have different opinions on how you want to run them, and you'll split them with her evenly - she can feel free to do her half herself. Regarding the fair, that's her loss. If she doesn't want to do it, whatever - she'll lose out on the business. Do your own thing and tell her good luck and best wishes for her business.

(Oh, and I tend to think she was sending you the devotionals as a way of "preaching" to you - she doesn't sound apologetic - or Christian! - at all!!) (((HUGS)))!!

 

[Kitchen Diva]

What a mess---I was trying to think of something helpful and encouraging to say, but I've not felt well for days and the only thing that comes to mind is smacking that woman upside the head, which isn't nice, nor loving of me, so since I can't say nuffin' nice I'm not gonna say nuffin' at all.

I'm very sorry you are in the middle of this, and I agree with Cathyskitchen up above!

 

[byrd1956]

and the only thing that comes to mind is smacking that woman upside the head, which isn't nice, nor loving of me, so since I can't say nuffin' nice I'm not gonna say nuffin' at all.

Oh my gosh, all I could do was laugh!!
I feel the same way and I'm not sick!!!
I agree about you taking over the classes. Good luck!

 

[JAE]

jillbean,

I'm sorry that this is happening to you. I know how easy it is to get sucked in by someone like that, even though you know what you should say and do instead. Collect your wits, set your boundaries, and say and do what you need to say and do. No more arrangements with her. When you start to show her the boundaries she won't like it and eventually she will be avoiding you as much as you want to avoid her. Hopefully sooner than later! Focus on what's right and best for your life and business and you won't go wrong. It's hard, I know. You can do it!

 

[rennea]

Wow this sounds like a mess, but one I think you can fix. As said above, cut ties with her. Does your director know about this? She may be able to help you with advice with how to deal with fairs etc. Hopefully she'll support you in all this.

All I can really say is that I would kick her to the curb.

 

[jillbean]

I have really gone back and forth on wether to tell my director or not. I don't want to feel like a little kid running to the teacher but, at the same time, I am thinking that the other lady might do just that and I don't want the director to think that I am being unprofessional. The other consultant has a tendency to paint things a bit different than they are. I'm not saying that she lies, exactly, she just blows things up in her mind. You know if someone accidently bumps into her at the grocery store, after she tells it a few times, she has them running down the aisle at 80 miles an hour with the intent to kill her. Throughout all of the emails and responses this has come out a few times. She has said that I said this or that and it is always different. At least 4 times, in the last couple of days, I have just sent back original emails to show her that she was wrong.
Anyway, other lady thinks, that I am being unprofessional in all of this!! She says to move the classes would look bad on me but I feel like having them there is worse! Besides I now have one more kid than she thinks can fit in her kitchen coming to my class and that doesn't even count the ones that she would have. I don't want to tell them no when I already bought there materials!
Anyway, my director is at conference right now and I don't want to send her an email that will distract her or put any kind of burden or worry on her... at all. I do think that I will send her one Tuesday though. I'll give her some time to adjust to being back.

 

[Teresa Lynn]

Darlin'
its summer take off your "coat", let her fanny hit the pavement & let your business grow without her in the shadows.You will be fine, bless it and release it