I walked in to Old Navy to exchange some boots. Since I didn't have a receipt, I went straight to the checkout line. There was only one customer in front of me, a woman with two tween girls in tow. One of these girls was sitting in a stroller, legs dangling over the sides so she could scoot herself around. I saw she was doing this before I got in line, and I made sure to give her plenty of space. Very soon, however, she starts backing up straight toward me. The woman she was with was watching her do this, and continued to chat with the cashier. The woman made eye contact with me as I stepped back, and stepped back some more, to avoid the girl bumping into me. The woman continues chatting with the cashier, saying nothing to me nor the child trying to play the world's most unfair game of bumper cars with me. As I am being pushed further toward the back of the store, I decide to simply step to the side, out of the backing zone. Still not a word from the woman to the child.
Now, Mama always said, "If you can't say something nice, don't say
anything at all." Not my mama, but someone's. Also, as an avid
reader of Miss Manners, I know there are no occasions for which rudeness is
acceptable. In those few minutes, my brain could not conjure a sentence that did not include
a) a 4-letter word, b) a command, rather than a request, and c) the need
to be spoken with my outside voice -to get this woman to tell the kid
to KNOCK IT OFF! So I said nothing. I simply moved out of the kid's way
and seethed silently with rage. There is truly no good way to either reprimand someone else's child, or to ask a parent to please remember that people other than their children exist, but I know that part of the reason I
couldn't think of anything polite to say was because the devil on my
shoulder said, "This lady obviously doesn't give a fuck how you feel,
why should you show her any courtesy?" Luckily, Miss Manners won that round, and I will just remain hopeful that there will never be another.
