I was out and about yesterday with my two children, ages 2 1/2 years and 8 months.
At the grocery store, we came upon an older gentleman engaged in an argument with an older woman. The woman had parked her truck several feet over the center dividing line of her parking space, and the gentleman had parked HIS truck across from hers. She'd made a snarky remark, something along the lines of 'I hope you didn't hit my car, you're too close' and the gentleman replied that he wouldn't have parked so close, but that since she was way over her line, he'd had no choice (these were disabled parking spots, by the way). The snipery continued (with the man pointing to precisely where the front of the woman's truck SHOULD have been stopped behind her line, and the woman continually calling the man rude for calling her out) as I whisked my kids into the store, hoping they didn't notice the bad will. I sighed, and moved on with my day.
A few hours later, we stopped for lunch at a local fast food establishment. After we'd taken our seats and had started to eat, the booming voice of an angry father echoed through the restaurant. The man was yelling at someone (I couldn't see whom at the time), calling him useless and lazy and a bunch of other things that I pray my little girl didn't hear. After the man left, I wandered to the front under the guise of needing napkins to see if the butt of the yelling was still there, and found a boy, probably about 14 years old, looking shellshocked. He honestly looked as if he didn't know what to do or where to go. As a parent, I know that it's impossible to be patient at all times, but I felt badly for the boy. I don't know what he did to get the tongue-lashing, but I DO know that public humiliation like that to which he was subjected rarely fixes anything.
So, was yesterday national 'be nasty to your neighbor' day and no one told me?
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Comments: 27
I miss my kids so much. They are married and moved away. I would not wish them to be babies again but you are so lucky to havebabies aged 2 1/2 years and 8 months. Enjoy them.
In our community men still open the doors for Women and the Elderly. I live in a great community
We always do. We notice that the more west we get the ruder the people are in public. I dont mean that as an insult. I am just stating an observation that we all made. In Oregon, the waitress at a KFC acturally made fun of our accents to our faces. It was terrible
I am curious, how did you babies react to the way these adults were behaving in public?
But, you don't live here in this town the rudeness happenes every day, because the majority of people here are self-centered.
Yesterday, at the grocery store here in Hot Springs, at two different times, I saw 2 different cashiers talk really hatefully to customers. When my husband was managing in retail, he would have fired an employee for talking to customers like they did.
You're not even supposed to be nice to people on gather.......
Hey- maybe THAT'S the problem?
This comment and rating of your older gather content was an idea Steve the Legend had on how to give a Christmas gift to our Gather connections. He posted an article with the suggestion of visiting our connetions and checking out their content from before we were connected. You are the 18th connection I have done this with so far, Sherry. I know it's a busy time of year for families with kids and I don't see you around here much lately. Still, I wasn't you to know that I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!