Still without my dishwasher, and Jim out with his co-workers, it was me and the girls and I was stumped for dinner. It's hard to cook when you hate doing it anyway, but the thought of hand washing every pot/pan/cooking utensil makes it that much harder to get motivated. So I packed up the girls and we headed to the grocery store to see what they had in their deli department.Both girls decided on chicken tenders and jojos. It would be a few minutes befor the tenders were ready, so we just stood there next to the counter and waited. Before long, an older woman in a scooter got behind us in line. Ryah took one look at her and loudly said, "Scary!" Then Peri followed suit and the two of them kept repeating "scary" while staring at the woman. I kept trying to hush them and tell them that that wasn't nice and to stop it. I couldn't even look at the woman, who wasn't helping her "scary" status with the perma-scowl on her face (no we didn't put it there, she came in with it). What was taking those chicken tenders so long?
I don't really know what I should have done; I was so embarrassed. Tell the woman I was sorry my kids were so honest? I think if she'd had a sense of humor about it, I would have just apologized and laughed it off, but I hate to say that my girls might have had a point. She scared me. And I don't think she saw any innocence in my girls.
This isn't the first time my girls have "just been honest" but it is the first time it's affected someone other than Jim or me. I'm used to comments like "you are stinky" (yeah, I guess they notice when I don't bother to shower) or "this is yucky" (there's my cooking motivation). I suppose it was bound to extend past immediate family sometime. On the one hand, I love the honesty of children. They're the ones you should ask if those jeans make your butt look fat, because they'll tell ya. But how do you instill tact and honesty at the same time?
I only hope we don't have any more run ins with "scary" people anytime soon. Just in case, I picked up a deli pizza so we wouldn't have to venture back to the grocery this weekend.
For me, the honesty isn't a problem...it's the loud, "I don't have an inner monologue" expression of it that is the hard part!
ReplyDeleteAmelia once pointed out a very obese man at JC Penney and said "Mommy that is a BIG boy" (thank God we never taught her to call anyone fat). I seriously wanted to die.
When we lived in Boston, our local Stop N Shop had a teenage clerk who had Tourette Syndrome and made very visible ticks and noises. Amelia was maybe 1 1/2 and didn't cry whenever the kid checked us out, but she had that look like "I could cry at any time" look on her face each time. Even though the clerk was pretty young, he seemed to understand his condition scared kids and he made every effort to comfort them...or try to make them laugh so they wouldn't be so scared of him. Obviously, a disability is no one's fault, but like you said...being surly towards kids who don't completely understand isn't the way to go either!
LOOK MOM! A GHOST!!
ReplyDeleteHaha, that is all I could think of while reading this. Your kids are the best.
My daughter went through a stage where she would (around 2 1/2) where she would accuse everyone-man or woman- who were slightly or more than slightly overweight of having a baby in their tummy. "You has a baby in yours tummy?" she would ask innocently. Pretty funny now when I look back but horrifying back then :)
ReplyDeleteOh, thanks Marisa, I guess this wasn't the first time they mortified me in public. Thanks for reminding me. :oP
ReplyDelete