Sometimes I feel there are so many forces in the world that are against us as parents. Strangers, pedophiles, scam artists. But sometimes it is the simple mean old man that is the worst threat.
I went out to lunch today with two friends. Three moms and six kids aged four and under. Five of the six kids were boys (meaning - raise the noise level expectation!). It's not like we chose the nicest place in town. We picked a local diner. It was just down the street from the park we just had a play date at.
Now, I need to preface by saying that I have been a mom for 3 1/2 years now. And in that time, my eating out choices have diminished to just fast food and buffet. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone bring me my food for a change? Just this once! And my expectations are not high. I won't be ordering the steak...
So we were seated in a room off by ourselves. And yes, there were times that the noise level was high. But five boys are only amused by stickers and crayons for so long. We were able to hold them in check for quite some time.
But we reached the point where we knew it would all end soon. And I am a firm believer in not subjecting other people to any temper tantrum that might erupt from my children. So my one friend ran out to find the waitress and let her know that we were nearing our limit.
Except she came back to the table crying. A man had told her that she had a "bunch of very bad kids back there." Um. Excuse me? Bad kids? Honey, you ain't seen nothing.
The poor waitress came over while the mom was still crying and we were trying to comfort her and calm our children. She said, "Don't worry about him. I can't say it in front of your kids, but his name is appropriate."
I knew immediately. D-I-C-K. So I said, "Don't worry about him. Just feel bad for his grandkids." And the waitress said, "He doesn't have grandkids.... or kids."
Right. Beware of the bitter old man who never had kids and always had peace and quiet. Suddenly, I didn't want to protect him from my children's outbursts. I wanted to protect my children from HIM.
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2 comments:
I feel bad for mean old people. They don't have much longer and they choose to be alone and angry about other people.
Pity really. To make sonmeone cry about their kids. I'm just glad she got so upset with you guys instead of some other group of mothers.
I would have been a bad Mommy and put a poopy diaper on his car and ran!
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