I heard you like bad girls. Well I’m bad
At everything
Hayley Callaghan
๐ฐ๐ฌโ๏ธ๐ญBut my dear, this is not Wonderland, and you are not Alice. ๐ฅ๐ชโ๏ธโซ๏ธ
twolittleteapots
Week 8 at Disneyland Paris -it’s a long one…..
Working in Disneyland can push you pretty low, but sometimes things do happen that make it all a little better.
Like times when guests are so kind to you, or times where you do
something that makes you feel like you actually made a difference to
someone’s day.
Last night, our shop was dead. I served about 14 customers in 8 hours, compared to easily in excess of 70 normally.
One of the last customers I dealt with was an English lady.
She was wandering around the shop pushing a buggy and chatting to her
daughter. She had handed me a few things through the course of her time
and just left them, saying she’d come back. Usually I’m obligated to put
them back on the floor. But I figured since the shop was empty I could
keep them for her.
At one point she asked for my help, so I
went over and helped and chatted a bit, and then the child in the buggy
got restless and kicked his rain cover off. Since the mother didn’t need
my help anymore I decided to chat to the little boy. He was wearing a
buzz light year hoodie and I was asking him about it and trying to see
if he’d enjoyed his day, but he wouldn’t look at me or engage, I smiled
and said “you’re shy aren’t you? I’ll leave you in peace Buzz,” and went
to walk away. Both his sister and mum smiled at me.
A while
later they came to the till and bought all their stuff. She was telling
me how they come to Disney every two years, when the boy in the pram got
restless again and climbed out. I started waving at him and trying to
engage but he really didn’t seem to want to talk. His mum apologised but
I just smiled and said its okay he probably doesn’t want to talk to a
talking cow. She laughed and started to say something but then he got
all excited and started pointing behind me.
We have these vinylmation villains which come in a green box with the villain from Incredibles on the outside.
His mum told me he loved that villain. And so she’d buy one of the
boxes. Unfortunately they’re pick and mix, you don’t actually know what
you’ll get on the inside. There’s 8 different models.
She said
it didn’t matter. So she bought it and I gave her son the toy. He
didn’t look at me or say anything but after opening it to find it wasn’t
the one he wanted he screeched and threw it away.
I was sort
of shocked but it happens a lot that children throw tantrums so I just
picked it up and gave it back, but he wouldn’t touch it or look at me.
I looked at his mum and she looked really sad. She looked at me and
said “I’m really sorry, he’s not spoilt or rude, he’s autistic, he
doesn’t understand”
I could see how upset she was and how she
must think I was thinking so I just looked and her and said “no it’s
okay, it’s my fault, I gave him the wrong toy”
I then looked at
him and asked him who he wanted in the box and he pointed at the
picture. I explained to him I was sorry, I couldn’t promise him the
right toy would be in the box but I would try again if he liked. He
looked up and nodded. So his mum decided to buy two more, but by this
point she was starting to cry, though I wasn’t sure why.
The first one I opened was a zombie, which he threw away and looked distraught.
I looked at his mum (now also really upset) and said “I’m really sorry, there’s nothing I can do to tell who we will get”
She shook her head and said “third time lucky?”
By this point we are all a little emotional, but we open the last one and it’s the villain from Incredibles!
Nearly in tears I ran round to him and showed him, and his face lit up and he smiled at me.
Then his mum burst into tears.
She told me that Rouby never smiles at anyone, and no one has ever
taken any notice of him or tried to engage him the way I did. For 10
minutes, someone had spoken to her baby, and not shied away because he
was autistic.
It made me sad to see that she felt she had to
explain him to me, he’s just a child at the end of the day, and all
children should be treated with respect.
She told me that
though I’d never understand what I’d done, I’d made her day a whole lot
brighter, and made her sons day a whole lot more special too.
That’s the point when working here feels worthwhile again.
Disneyland - 3 Eilidh - 1