We got back from Barcelona last week and headed straight to Miami for Thanksgiving where we spent the last week. I will highlight more about our Barcelona trip, but now I need to write about an incident that happened today at the airport.
Jacob and I sat down on the floor in an open space by the gate of our airplane this morning. There were no seats left and a nice big open space by the window to see planes. Nate came and sat down near us and the boys had one of their silly conversations, this one about birthday presents. Something Nate said angered Jacob, and he shouted, "NO!"
An older man (late 60s) sitting on a chair in front of us, talking on his cell phone was startled and yelled back at Jacob. In a mean voice with an angry face. This I could tolerate, since Jacob did shout quite loudly and startled everyone in the vicinity.
What shocked, hurt and angered me, was what the man did next. He never got off his phone and continued making call after call. In his normal, speaking voice less than 2 feet away from me, he described my "awful" child who "keeps screaming," (Jacob wasn't) and "the mother..." this part, I honestly did not hear, but I am sure it was something less than flattering about me.
There were many, many young children on the flight, and he started complaining that the flight was full of children. Sadly for him, he did not get the memo that the rest of us got, telling us parents of young children to always fly the Monday after Thanksgiving, never the Sunday after.
I was so tempted to engage him in a debate, but I knew it was a lose-lose conversation. Instead I caught his eye and gave my best glare that let him know I could hear him perfectly and knew he was speaking about me. Honestly, what is worse, a screaming two year old or a fully grown adult with no manners? Jacob will outgrow his screaming. This man will never outgrow his intolerance or rudeness if he has not done so yet.
Plus, now I feel a bit bad for the man. He obviously has no grandchildren, since every grandparent would have sympathized with a child who had to be worken up for an early flight. It must have been a lonely Thanksgiving for him and a bleak future Christmas.
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1 comment:
Hey Linda,
Fume no more. You are right - that man will still be a rude, you-know-what when your children will be past their "little kids who need to express themselves" stage.
Almost 30 years ago (yes, I am a grandma now), my 2-year-old threw a temper tantrum on the floor of the grocery store.
The reason?
I wouldn't let him have bubble gum from those evil machines they install just to make mothers spend their money and ruin their kids teeth.
I walked away from him (o.k. o.k. I was only pretending - it worked with my older children).
But it didn't work with this kid.
Instead, I had people coming up to this screaming, kicking kid lying on the dirty floor and saying "oh you poor thing". Thanks, people - now you take him home and deal with him.
Then an ancient, old man who was leaning on his cane as he walked, came up to me, looked me straight in the eye and said "This child needs a spanking".
"I already gave him one, that's why he's crying." I retorted.
The man looked a little taken aback but thumped his cane and said
"Well, you'd better have more children, because this one is spoiled!"
"I have three" I told him calmly.
He had nothing more to say and stomped away.
There will always be frustrated older people in this world, so just let it go and enjoy your children before they grow up.
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