Sweet, glittery apologies in the real world!

Snarly just had a lovely interaction with an Etsy seller. It was a tiny example of how good apologies make everyone feel better.

But first, a CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT: Snarly thinks candy corn is disgusting. Vile. A tiny, chewy, sugary cone of stale ew. Yet she unaccountably gave birth to a child who thinks candy corn is the best thing ever. Despite this parenting failure, Snarly decided to make a candy corn-themed bracelet for her child, whose birthday is the week before Halloween. (See, humans can disagree about reasonable things—things that do not negate other people’s lives—and still support each other!) Snarly found someone on Etsy who offered cute, not-too-expensive glass candy corn beads. She ordered them. A day later, she got a notification that a shipping label had been created…but then days passed with no notice that the beads had shipped. The promised arrival window came and went. Snarly fretted about missing her child’s birthday. She sent the seller a message.

AND BEHOLD, THE POWER OF APOLOGY!

This apology from Aunt Jenny’s Beads hits all six of SorryWatch’s six steps to a good apology. 1. Aunt Jenny uses the word “sorry,” rather than “regret.” Regret (a statement that places primacy on how the speaker feels, rather than how the listener feels) makes us cranky. The way orange marshmallow circus peanuts do. 2. Aunt Jenny says what she’s sorry for. 3. Aunt Jenny takes responsibility. 4. Aunt Jenny makes no excuses. 5. OK, fine, Aunt Jenny doesn’t say how she’ll ensure it won’t happen again, but it’s not NECESSARY—sometimes things lurch into roadways, necessitating slamming on brakes! — so she gets a pass. 6. Aunt Jenny offers to make up what she did wrong (everyone loves free shipping!). Snarly was happy. And then Aunt Jenny fulfilled the “and a half” part of our six-and-a-half step apology process by listening to Snarly share her excitement about this apology.

Screenshot of message from Marjorie/Snarly saying:

iPhone screen image, continuing message from seller,

screenshot of text exchange continues,

An oops was fixed. The candy corn beads came in time for Max’s birthday, along with the rest of Snarly’s order, which involved tiny plastic beer stein charms which will be used in Green Bay Packers bracelets. (Sadly, beer is utterly essential to watching the Green Bay Packers this year.)

Perhaps Snarly just sold a copy of her and Sumac’s forthcoming book; perhaps she did not. It doesn’t matter. She and the seller had a moment.

Yay, apologies!