It has been WAY TOO LONG since my last post. I apologize to my loyal readers (all 3 of you precious and extremely appreciated readers ;-).... It has been a really busy time for us, as usual. However, our evenings (when I usually update the blog) have been filled with home improvement projects and home showings and we have been traveling on the weekends. Yup! We put our house on the market on May 15th!!! I will catch up on all the juicy details of the last few weeks soon, I promise, but until then, I leave you with this question, "What would you say?"
I was at the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, FL yesterday with my dear friend Danielle and our two boys. We were there for a brief 20 min... lets dig our toes in the sand, dip our feet in the water, fill a bucket with a few scoops of sand, first time beach visit for Carson. Jake, Danielle's husband, was to meet us with their 4 week old Sutton for lunch. Jake was early so he walked down to the water with Sutton and Danielle strapped him in the Baby Bjorn and covered him with a blanket to make the stroll to the restaurant. Within the first few minutes of what would have been 8-10 min at the most with the baby on the beach to get the kids corralled and off the beach, sure enough a elderly man walked up to Danielle and said, "Its great that you are starting him early, but you really shouldn't have an infant on the beach." What would you say???
Jake came back at Danielle with something like, "That won't be the last time you get a comment like that from a perfect stranger, you have to have something to come back with..." He is totally right! I have heard crazy stories from other mother's that have had similar situations. What is funny is I had one of my first just later that day...
Carson was a perfect angel on the 2.5 hour flight to FL last week. The ride home was a different story. He was not bad by any means, he was just a typical wiggly, short attention spanned, loud, fussy 30 POUND
elephant, I mean toddler, that was up and down and kicking the chair in front of him for the entire flight. I was trying to pull out EVERY trick in the book to keep him happy. I rotated the 4 toys we had over and over and over again and fed him everything I had in my bag to keep him happy. What seemed like an eternity later, Carson and I were waiting for our bags in baggage claim and sure enough, an elderly lady pleasantly let it be known that Carson kicked her chair the entire flight. Do you think I wasn't aware of that??? I simply smiled and apologized over and over and thanked her for her patience. And then she offered up her suggestions of paying for a ticket next time and bringing the car seat along so I can strap him in so he won't kick the chair ahead of him. Once again, I smiled and turned to get my bags and left. What would you say???
Oh I wish I thought quicker on my feet. Let me point out to you that this woman was dressed to the 9's with the biggest diamond I have ever seen on her ring finger and a full set of Coach luggage AND we were flying a low cost airline. I would have said something like so, "Now that is a great suggestion. However, I am not quite sure how I would lug a car seat, stroller, diaper bag packed to the rim with diapers, multiple changes of clothes, toys, food and other toddler necessities, and not to mention a 30 lbs toddler through the airport by myself. However, my suggestion to you would be to cash in your diamond for a first class ticket on a major airline so you can enjoy the comforts you so sorely missed out on today or I would gladly accept a $300 donation for our trip home at Christmas so we are sure not to make anyone else's trip unpleasant next time." Ugh.
I thought back to the many times I have travelled (before Carson) and thought to myself, please don't let me be seated next to the infant, however, I don't recall ever blaming the parents. It is something you just have to do...travel with children. I hated being "that mother" on the plane.
If you have similar stories of how perfect strangers commented on what you should or should not be doing with your children, I would love to hear them!!
OR
If you have some suggestions of ways to fire back at comments like these (or others you predict we first time parents will undoubtedly get), send them our way so we can put them in our hip pocket for next time.
I was at the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, FL yesterday with my dear friend Danielle and our two boys. We were there for a brief 20 min... lets dig our toes in the sand, dip our feet in the water, fill a bucket with a few scoops of sand, first time beach visit for Carson. Jake, Danielle's husband, was to meet us with their 4 week old Sutton for lunch. Jake was early so he walked down to the water with Sutton and Danielle strapped him in the Baby Bjorn and covered him with a blanket to make the stroll to the restaurant. Within the first few minutes of what would have been 8-10 min at the most with the baby on the beach to get the kids corralled and off the beach, sure enough a elderly man walked up to Danielle and said, "Its great that you are starting him early, but you really shouldn't have an infant on the beach." What would you say???
Jake came back at Danielle with something like, "That won't be the last time you get a comment like that from a perfect stranger, you have to have something to come back with..." He is totally right! I have heard crazy stories from other mother's that have had similar situations. What is funny is I had one of my first just later that day...
Carson was a perfect angel on the 2.5 hour flight to FL last week. The ride home was a different story. He was not bad by any means, he was just a typical wiggly, short attention spanned, loud, fussy 30 POUND
elephant, I mean toddler, that was up and down and kicking the chair in front of him for the entire flight. I was trying to pull out EVERY trick in the book to keep him happy. I rotated the 4 toys we had over and over and over again and fed him everything I had in my bag to keep him happy. What seemed like an eternity later, Carson and I were waiting for our bags in baggage claim and sure enough, an elderly lady pleasantly let it be known that Carson kicked her chair the entire flight. Do you think I wasn't aware of that??? I simply smiled and apologized over and over and thanked her for her patience. And then she offered up her suggestions of paying for a ticket next time and bringing the car seat along so I can strap him in so he won't kick the chair ahead of him. Once again, I smiled and turned to get my bags and left. What would you say???
Oh I wish I thought quicker on my feet. Let me point out to you that this woman was dressed to the 9's with the biggest diamond I have ever seen on her ring finger and a full set of Coach luggage AND we were flying a low cost airline. I would have said something like so, "Now that is a great suggestion. However, I am not quite sure how I would lug a car seat, stroller, diaper bag packed to the rim with diapers, multiple changes of clothes, toys, food and other toddler necessities, and not to mention a 30 lbs toddler through the airport by myself. However, my suggestion to you would be to cash in your diamond for a first class ticket on a major airline so you can enjoy the comforts you so sorely missed out on today or I would gladly accept a $300 donation for our trip home at Christmas so we are sure not to make anyone else's trip unpleasant next time." Ugh.
I thought back to the many times I have travelled (before Carson) and thought to myself, please don't let me be seated next to the infant, however, I don't recall ever blaming the parents. It is something you just have to do...travel with children. I hated being "that mother" on the plane.
If you have similar stories of how perfect strangers commented on what you should or should not be doing with your children, I would love to hear them!!
OR
If you have some suggestions of ways to fire back at comments like these (or others you predict we first time parents will undoubtedly get), send them our way so we can put them in our hip pocket for next time.
2 comments:
Well, with my short fuse and lack of patience with stupid people...I would have wanted to say alot of unpleasant words. People offer unwanted advise to me all of the time. Just the other day an old man came up to me and my perfectly content kids at the ballpark and told me it was a little late to have my kids out at a ball game. Yesterday a lady told me I should have Riggs in the air conditioning instead of subjecting him to the heat at a baseball game. To these people I usually can only say "I would apprieciate it if you would mind your own business." If I said what I really wanted to say to them, I would be using language around my kids that I would rather not. Just know that it'll happen again. It always does.
AWESOME POST! i haven't really had anyone do that to me YET, but we leave tomorrow for a 4 hour flight to cali... so we'll see if i have an experience like yours! now i'll be prepared. however, people that say those kinds of things are typically people who believe they are always right, and the rest of us are idiots, so wasting your time and breath on a comeback probably won't change their views. but DANG it sure makes me feel better when i do!!!!! i'll have to think about it....
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