Give me a break!

June 26, 2007 · 6 comments

The boys and I took a trip to Joann today to pick up some more fabric for a project we’re working on for Matt’s room and it got me to pondering.

Why are some old(er) people so freaking cranky? Look, I understand that not everybody likes little kids or thinks they’re cute or funny, but please, (ala John Stossel) Give me a BREAK!! These are MY kids we’re talking about! LOL. No, seriously though, while I was having the fabric cut into the needed amounts, the boys were standing nearby playing in a clearance bin. In this bin were plastic covered spools of thread. Plastic covered, so no excess thread unwinding or anything crazy. P was grabbing the spools and throwing them and Matt was running after them and bringing them back. For the record, I was not 5 feet away, watching them the whole time, and making sure no innocent bystanders were impacted by the reckless playing. They were both laughing HYSTERICALLY, and if you’ve ever heard my boys (or any little ones this age for that matter) giggle with such innocence and abandon, you can’t help but at least smile; at most, laugh out loud. Not the lady cutting my fabric though!! She kept sighing and making disapproving noises. She couldn’t get done cutting my fabric fast enough (haha! I had like 12 different ones!).

My boys were staying near me. They were LAUGHING – not obnoxiously, but with childhood glee. They weren’t bothering anyone (aside from her). They put everything back where they found it. They were having fun!! Why does that result in sighing and eye rolling? This lady was probably my mom’s age. Maybe she doesn’t have grandkids. Maybe she doesn’t have kids. Maybe she was having a bad day (although she was perfectly pleasant until they started playing). No matter what the reason, is that really a good excuse to attempt to ruin MY day? I totally understand when kids are misbehaving – mine are often whining or fussing or just not listening when we’re out – but today they were AWESOME and she just had to judge me and my kids. WHAT-EV-ER.

In the same store, some other older lady was walking behind us (Matt was walking along the side of the cart so, not so quick or smooth were we). Instead of smiling or saying excuse me or whatever, she basically just pushed her cart on my heels until we were forced to abandon what we were looking at to move out of her way!  Uh. Common courtesy? Anyone?  Since when is it that when you get old you can just complain and moan and ignore all common courtesy?

In other news, I was totally impressed when I saw a woman walking down the street with her babe and was, at the same time, breastfeeding!  I couldn’t pull it off sitting on a chair, absolutely still, let alone walking down the street!!  Had I been on the sidewalk and not driving by in my car, I would have totally given her props for that.   I sucked at the whole breastfeeding thing.  With Matt I was so motivated to do it…but he literally screamed bloody murder every time we tried.  Forget latching problems – he would freak as soon as I pulled one of the girls out!  So I tried pumping, and that actually went ok, but by the time that started going well enough, I was in complete hive break-out mode from an massive allergic reaction to antibiotics.  I couldn’t move without wanting to itch – it was seriously horrible.  All I wanted to do was cry and scratch and cry some more.  Good start for the whole breastfeeding thing, eh?  So by the time I was put on steroids and told to pump and dump, I gave up.  It was so emotionally draining that I had to go with formula for my sanity (and so the boy could eat!).

Where was I going with all this?……  OH!  I went to a baby shower on Sunday and my cousin’s wife is pregnant with her second little girl.  She is a total control freak.  She’s already scheduled her c-section and knows that she’s going to skip breastfeeding right away.  Fine by me – whatever works (besides, I have NO room to talk), but I know that would totally creep some people out and they’d get all judgey and stuff.  I used to visit a message board that was decidedly natural family living – some aspects of which I really like – but some of them were so high and mighty it was absurd.  They would, in one thread, talk about how important it is that mothers support each other and not judge and be helpful to all, but in the next thread they would totally be dissing anyone who didn’t do everything mothering related exactly like they did.  I’m pretty sure the people on that board started the mommy wars. 😉

Can I just ask what the use of having a dog like this is?  It’s smaller than a guinea pig!  I would totally squash it!  (Took dorkdog to the vet and saw this place’s ad in a Dog Fancy mag.) Dorkdog is fine by the way.  13 years old and doing just fine, health wise.  Think he’s still annoyed at us for having to share his domain with Mags, but he still seems to love us.  🙂

Oh, and can someone tell me WTF is with this website??? Heard an ad on the radio for it.  Seriously? WTF!?

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

<![CDATA[MamaLee] June 26, 2007 at 2:31 pm

omg with that website, just to get that comment out of the way. YIKES! And I agree about older people just being plain RUDE. Sometimes I give some back, to be honest. I say things like, \"I\'m SORRY, was I in your WAY?\" And the ever popular, \"saying excuse me tends to WORK BETTER!\" I\'m bad. And I\'m not even hormonal at the moment. LOL Good post, girl!

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June 26, 2007 at 9:31 pm

omg with that website, just to get that comment out of the way. YIKES!

And I agree about older people just being plain RUDE. Sometimes I give some back, to be honest. I say things like, “I’m SORRY, was I in your WAY?” And the ever popular, “saying excuse me tends to WORK BETTER!”

I’m bad. And I’m not even hormonal at the moment. LOL

Good post, girl!

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<![CDATA[Shine]]& June 27, 2007 at 12:18 am

It is sad, I think they feel some sense of entitlement because they are a certain age. Hey, I\'m all about respecting my elders and being considerate- holding a door, giving up a closer parking spot, whatever…but their blatant rudeness or being judgemental is so uncalled for! I\'ve been looked at in public when my kid(s) have been making noise, nothing obnoxious, but I still get that look, like \"shut that kid up!\" Please! We\'re in public, no one is having a meltdown, we\'re not at the movies or in a library, so step off lady!

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June 27, 2007 at 7:18 am

It is sad, I think they feel some sense of entitlement because they are a certain age. Hey, I’m all about respecting my elders and being considerate- holding a door, giving up a closer parking spot, whatever…but their blatant rudeness or being judgemental is so uncalled for! I’ve been looked at in public when my kid(s) have been making noise, nothing obnoxious, but I still get that look, like “shut that kid up!” Please! We’re in public, no one is having a meltdown, we’re not at the movies or in a library, so step off lady!

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<![CDATA[jen]]&gt June 29, 2007 at 3:55 pm

that website is a trip. dude.

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June 29, 2007 at 10:55 pm

that website is a trip. dude.

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