Blog de Puree

Before this past Mother’s Day, I took my son to the Hallmark store to stock up on cards for the Misses. One from me, one from the child, one that was funny, and so on.

Getting around the store was a bit of a struggle, however, starting with trying to get in the door. Some woman with a young teen of her own, stood slack-jawed just on the other side of the door as I wrestled to get inside with child, stroller and diaper bag. And did they move out of the way once I made it through? No.

In the card aisle, some young woman took it upon herself to move my son and stroller because he was a bit too close to her as she was looking at cards in the same section as me. I turned around to show him a card—he was helping me choose—and there she was pushing him a few feet away. I did what any self-respecting parent would do. I gave her a dirty look and brought him back to where he was so we could continue to pick cards. The nerve of some people!

After I paid for the cards, a bunch of people just gave me dumb smiles as they blocked all the narrow pathways through the impulse shopping tchotchke stands as I attempted to make my way out the store from the register counter. A few louder-than-normal “excuse me’s” seemed to work and then I struggled my way out the door as a father and son stood outside waiting for me to fight my way through the doors again. ‘Thanks for holding the door pal!’

These days, I’m more sensitive to people’s lack of help and considerate behavior when they see others struggling with baby carriages. If I see a mother struggling with a carriage, I’ll go out of my way to lend a hand with doors and such. On the other hand, my wife and I are quite thankful that we haven’t lost all perspective—we’re still annoyed at mothers who charge around as though the entire world needs to jump out of the way for her and her children at the slightest provocation.