Today has been a whirlwind of a day. In summary, (you're welcome) the ENT says the baby's broken nose is healing mid-line, and does not need to be set. The eldest child has Fourth of July Swimmers Ear, and now needs drops that he says "make everything not normal" when I put them in his ear. My Mom lost her cat. I went and found her lost cat. (By "lost" I mean "hiding behind the sofa".) So, let's get to the good part, shall we....
I took my oldest kiddo to get his hair cut after picking up his prescription. He had a free coupon (thanks to joining the reading club at our local library), for a free Auntie Anne's pretzel. The cashier asks me if I'd like an lemonade to go with our order, when a tweenager comes from behind us and says "Ooooh, pretzels!" and literally puts her grubby (no doubt) hand into our cup of nuggets and takes a handful and shoves them in her mouth. (There were no obvious signs of any type of mental handicap, as that was the first thing to cross my mind.) Her Mom simply said "Don't do that! Sorry!", and walked off. I stood there, speechless. I'm assuming if she felt comfortable swiping a preschooler's grub in line at a pretzel shop, she probably wasn't the most religious when it came to personal hygiene. Who knows where her hands were. I looked at the cashier, who did not once suggest replacing my pretzels, which I had not paid for yet, and should have said "NEVER THE HELL MIND!" and walked away from, but I just stared at her stunned. She asked me, again, if I wanted lemonade, and I said "Wait, what? I'm sorry. I'm trying to think. What just happened? That has never happened to me before. I don't know what to say." She just said "It's okay!" WTH Auntie Anne's?! So I, still in shock, paid for the pretzel nuggets, and took them and our free pretzel (of course, the thing I wasn't paying for wasn't felt up by Toilet-Hands MaGee). My son, promptly grabbed a nugget, and, before I could stop him, stuffed one in his mouth. I grabbed them, and threw half in the nearest garbage, told him not to worry I had the other pretzel to replace the contaminated ones, and that I wasn't throwing them away because he had done something wrong, but because a Mom was letting her kid touch strangers' food.
If my kid had, for some odd reason, grabbed someone's food, I would have apologized, and told the cashier to give them a new one and I'd pay for the one my kid helped themselves to. Apparently we just live in a big pond of stupid, where parents allow kids to take things that don't belong to them, touch people's food, and slap little kids in the face, in front of Santa. Then, they all look at YOU like you are the crazy one for being there in the first place. Or maybe I'm dreaming all of this... that makes much more sense. See, this is why I decided to write shit down... because sometimes I just can't even tell if this is real life!
I have to say, especially since the girl was with her mom and not a bunch of her friends, it sounds like this girl has autism/aspergers. People have it in varying levels of severity and sometimes it is very hard to tell. Still, that is a crazy story haha!
ReplyDeleteShe was about 10, so I'm thinking she would not have been there with just her friends, anyway. BUT, I did consider that, (as I mentioned above), but really I have no way of knowing & ultimately focused on 'This food is now contaminated, and they are still going to sell it to me.' The way she was carrying on, laughing, and joking with her Mom and her body language, looked like a girls day out together. I still think, even if my child could not help themselves, I would have tried to offer to replace someone's food, as they may not wish to eat something someone they do not know has just touched without washing their hands. It's like if the waiter brings you your drink with their finger hanging over the edge into it.
ReplyDeleteOh I totally agree that the mom and cashier should have behaved differently. I was never arguing that point, only the possibility that the kid had autism :) obviously I wasn't there, it just sounds like a possibility.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it is possible. I WAS there, and couldn't tell either way, haha. So, even being there wasn't much help.
ReplyDeleteI think I was just socially inappropriate about someone being socially inappropriate. Then my brain exploded.
ReplyDeleteWhat a day!! I hope your weekend was better!!
ReplyDeleteIt was! Nobody touched my food... and my food didn't touch another food. (Yeah, I'm one of THOSE people). :)
ReplyDeleteHoly crap! I can't believe anyone would have manners like that and the Mom handled that completely wrong.
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