I should not be as bother by this as I am but an incident happened the other day at the high school football game and it is still on my mind and figured maybe some of my other blog moms would have some input.
As previous stated, my family and I decided to go to the Massillon/McKinley game on Saturday afternoon. Football is everything in the town I grew up in and the Massillon Tigers will always be a part of who I am. Good and bad. To put it in prospective, the game had an attendance of an estimated 19,000 people. The game is one of the biggest rivalries in the nation and it is the only high school game that has betting odds in Vegas.
Kinda a big deal.
So fast forward to game time. We were driving around trying to find a parking spot and on top of the thousands of fans, there are blocks and blocks and blocks of tailgaters. So people everywhere. Yelling, screaming, carrying on like forty year old high schoolers do. Nick decided he would get as close as possible and drop off Marlee and I. So I did not have to walk as far and he would go find a parking spot. So we stopped in traffic, I jumped out, grabbed up my Marlee, and baby backpacked her across my chest. As soon as Nick drove off, I realized I forgot her hoodie. No big deal. I called nick but he didn't answer so I figured I would just hang out and wait for him to come with her diaper bag which included her jacket with a hood. I walked maybe a block and felt it. The eyes. The eyes of everyone looking at me, wondering why I did not have a hat on my child.
Normally I could care less what people think, let alone that they are staring at me and honestly I thought I was just be paranoid but the eyes continued.
And then it happened. One of those sets of eyes decided to approach me. She asked if I had a hat for 'that child.' That child. Strike one. I semi politely said yes and turned my back, feeling even more anxious and dying for Nick to hurry up. Keep in mind this whole incident happened over five minutes but felt like an eternity.
Well nosey, drunk lady pressed on and said that the baby should have a hat on. She just felt that she should say something. I told her that I had a hat, my husband was bringing it. Well she continued. At this point I could not even tell you what she was jabbering about because another lady passing by shouted "Put a hat on that baby!"
Screamed at Marlee and I!
The audacity of these people was overwhelming. I felt cornered. I felt like a terrible mother. I forgot her hat in the car but my husband was getting it! I was not going to let her freeze. She was fine. It was not that cold. And who were these people!?! Damn hat police?
So being the classy broad I am, I went Bad Girls style on their ass. Before the punching. And water throwing. And hair pulling. It was really just a lot of yelling. And a couple f words. Like I said classy. I guarantee none of the Bad Girls argue with a baby strapped to their chest.
If you don't watch this show, you should. Great, reality escaping crap.
Listen, I am not proud of this but it happened and at the time I was completely traumatized. Sometimes you just have to laugh and move on.
So of course, I had to tell my best friend how I earned the mother of the year award at the high school football game and she said this kind of thing has happened to her before - people have commented on certain aspects of her day as if they are the experts on raising children. She obviously handled it better than I. My outburst was textbook what NOT to do.
Of course, Nick shows up at the end of this debacle with the jacket in hand. Marlee was warm and happy for the rest of the game but I could not help but imagine myself going back and telling that lady off.
The bottom line was that it was rude and made me act completely out of character. 'That child' was not being poorly taken care of. My Marlee was not in any discomfort - she was warmly snuggled up to my chest. I would NEVER approach someone and call them out on any aspect of parenting. Do I agree with the mothers that walk around beating their children at Walmart? (Seen it happen on more then one occasion.) No. I might not agree with it but it is none of my business.
So I wondered - what about being a parent makes people feel they are experts? Would you go up to a stranger and make an opinion about the care of a child? Has this ever happened to you?
Would love to hear your opinions!
I won't yell f words at you. Promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment