We all have those treasured outings with our children where people give us the stink eye and we leave feeling a little bit stupid hey? There is usually always a Susan involved. You know the type, “You’re making a rod for your own back”, “My children never misbehaved”, rules and regulations, almost always accompanied with a resting b**** face.
The other day I copped a beauty. I had to take Mr 6 to the optometrist for an eye check and obviously had to take all 4 children with me. We won’t go into details but it was definitely an establishment that up sells you on every single feature except the kitchen sink. There are a lot of parents out there who have to actually parent their own children 99% of the time, shocking hey? Anyway, let’s call her Susan was quite obviously upset that I hadn’t arranged childcare options.
From the minute we walked in she was staring with her dagger eyes at my children playing with the toys. The toys that were in the play area for children to generally play with. Mr 2 got a bit lively once we went into the appointment and sassy Susan morphed into a Grandmother from hell who spoke to my child like a delinquent. Even when we went to leave I got a beautiful look of disgust. I said “Thank you for patience” with a smile and she replies “Righhhht” with an eye roll.
It’s safe to say I left fuming. I regret not saying “have you got a problem lady?!” but prefer to avoid conflict in front of my children. What I would like to say Susan’s out there is- you have had your day in the sun lady, you have brought up your own children and I bet they ain’t perfect! I’m sure one of them rebelled, or one collects their own toenail clippings. Why are you so bloody judgemental? I know 4 kids isn’t the norm nowadays but why are we so inconvenienced by children? Why are we so quick to forget how tough it can be wrangling children? Children that are generally well behaved but above all else CHILDREN.
What makes me laugh was Mr 2 was actually pretty mild that day, at times he can be a wild banshee who I have to carry out of places like a surfboard. Sassy Susan’s just need to mind their own business. It’s not like I’m packaging these kids up for you to take home lady, get a grip. Sometimes I have copped sass because I have taken my children shopping at the supermarket. How dare I take my own offspring into public to purchase food sources!!! On one occasion on a busy day in the supermarket someone was all huffy and burning me with their eyes because my kids were slowly helping to load the groceries onto the conveyor belt. I just rolled my eyes back and said “anyone would think you were paying for it aye”
I have at times had such lovely people approach me to offer assistance or to say something kind and that makes up for all the bad experiences. I think we can all make the effort to offer anyone a smile that is having a tough time, have some tolerance, or just simply don’t grace us with your death stares, that would be fab! You don’t want to be a Susan anyway, be a Debra instead. Bloody Debra the good b**** that she is held my baby while I loaded my groceries into the car one time. I am definitely going to be more like Debra too.