YIKES! Be Nice!

Now I really try hard to not place judgement on people. We are all walking our own walk. We are all fighting our own fights. We all have days that we wish we could start over.

So today, I did not make a scene when I saw a mom being a bit rude. Instead I did my best to be extra nice to the poor woman who was on the receiving end of the rudeness from this other mom.

We were at the middle school where the Big One will start 6^th grade next week (YIKES!). It was time to purchase PE uniforms. Now you don’t have to purchase the school-logo stuff but you can. It’s $22 for the shorts and T-shirt. The instructions from the school say that if you choose not to purchase the school ones, you can. You just need to purchase royal blue shorts and light grey T-shirt. No problem, right.

So we walk in the room. There is a mom approaching the register, when another mom came up and said, “Excuse me, can I ask you a quick question?” to the woman running the register. She replied sure and the woman asked if her son could try on the shorts somewhere to assure they fit. The woman running the register has clearly been doing this for a while, she replied, “Well, let me take a look at you.” She proceeded to tell the mom that the kid needed the large size shorts, and that he could slip them on over his current shorts to make sure.

While this was going on, the first mom who was approaching the register smirked at me and mumbled “That’s not a very quick question,” in a huff. I just smiled at her and shrugged my shoulders. It really was not taking that long at all.

The x-small clothes were right next to the register so that’s we were hanging out with my tiny child.

So the staff lady returned to her spot at the register where the other mom was clearly annoyed.

She was there with her three kids. As far as I could tell the three kids were fine. They were not whining. They were not complaining. They were just waiting. She snapped at the staff member asking if there was anything smaller than an x-small.  The staff lady replied no that was the smallest and that it would be fine because he could wear them for more than one year, thus saving some money. Or she could go to a store and buy something smaller if she needed to.

At this point, the mom asked where she would find a t-shirt that fit the bill. Apparently the shorts were fine size wise, but the T-shirt was unacceptable.

Now I am no rocket scientist, but finding a light grey T-shirt is not that hard. If nothing else, just go to T-shirt Mart where they sell every color under the rainbow for like $3.

But anyway, the staff lady kind of shrugged her shoulders this time and said she could purchase a light grey T-shirt just about anywhere.

The mom was now even more annoyed. She literally folded her arms and tapped her foot on the ground and asked if the shirt the kid was currently wearing was acceptable.

Staff lady replied that no, it was not okay. The kid was wearing a dark grey polyester moisture-wicking type shirt with burgundy colored thread. The staff lady again said it needs to be a light grey cotton T-shirt.

At this point the mom was even more mad. “Well, he just won’t wear it! They are all too BIG. And he will not wear it!”

The staff lady was very nice and just said, well it’s your choice, but they will make him change at PE time if he is not wearing the right color shirt.

Then mom put her hands on the kids’ shoulder and said, “We’ll just have to see. He will not wear a baggy shirt!!”

Now my kid and I were having a similar challenge. The shirt is huge on her. She doesn’t like a wearing baggy stuff either. But my child and I talked about it. And by talked about it I basically said, “Suck it up buttercup, this is the smallest size they’ve got!” To which she shrugged her shoulders and said, “It’ll be fine.”

It’s not the staff person’s fault that my kid has issues (or any other kid has issues). There was no reason for this mom to get snotty and rude about her kid’s shirt-wearing challenges. She could have just said “thank you very much for the information” and walked away.

Why do people feel the need to be rude and nasty to others? The lady’s three kids were watching the whole encounter. What did they learn from mom’s attitude?  I can only imagine if that poor kid comes home with a less-than-stellar grade. I wonder who will be held accountable.

{Yes, I know she could have been having a bad day, we all do. But something in her demeanor led me to believe that this was not just a bad moment for her!}

And truth be told my child and I are not perfect in any way shape or form. Once we got home and she tried the PE uniform on, she was much less gracious about the size. But she will deal with it!

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