I had a confrontation with some elderly people today, which was horrible.
Confrontation of any kind isn’t usually pleasant but I find being disappointed by your elders so much more upsetting.
I had been in town food shopping and had stopped in a coffee shop to feed my 6-month-old his lunch.
Chain coffee houses are very useful for this purpose as they will heat up food & bottles for you and they also provide high chairs and changing facilities.
I fed him his food, juice & then gave him pieces of cucumber to gnaw on & throw everywhere while I chatted to my friend. He giggled, dribbled and flirted with the other customers. And was incredibly charming and well behaved (no really).
I changed him in the loo and then tickled him for a bit, which always causes squarks of delight, until it was time to leave. At this point I had to get him into the pushchair which is always a bit of a struggle as he hates being strapped in, routinely performing plank position, but always settles as soon as its done. Which he did with no tears.
I had a quick check to make sure I had everything and it was at this point that an elderly man at the next table said;
“Oh why don’t you just take it away?” at least that’s what I thought he said, but surely not? So I asked him to repeat himself as I obviously had not heard correctly,
“Just take it away.” he said gesturing to the baby.
“I beg your pardon?” I replied in disbelief.
“|Take that racket out of here, you shouldn’t be here.” he said.
“I’m sorry that’s incredibly rude and I have a right to be here.”
At this point his wife turned to me and said;
“You should not be here and if you are you should not let it make that noise.”
“Take it away!” repeated the man.
“It?! He is a baby!” interjected my friend.
“You should have it at home.” said the woman. “We come here to relax. Some people come here to study.” she gestured around the room. “Not put up with that noise and people like you.” I felt hot and shaky, so took a second to breathe before saying;
“This is a public place with facilities for baby’s. There is another baby over there and another over there.” I pointed, the other parents of said children exchanging glances as if to say, don’t bring us into this.
“Yes.” answered the old woman “And they should all be in a nursery together. Not here so we should have to hear it. We want peace and quiet.”
“Then why don’t you go to a library?!” I suggested. “And anyway he hasn’t even cried for the entire time we’ve been here. How can you be so rude and intolerant of other people? Didn’t you have children of your own?”
“Yes we did.” says the woman. “But they didn’t make noise.”
“I find that incredibly hard to believe!” I snorted.
“No they didn’t, I didn’t let them!” she argued.
“Thats ridiculous! Babies make noise. Don’t forget that both of you were babies once too.”
“Just take it away!” the old man gestured again.
“It’s because you’re too young. You don’t know how to keep it quiet and think you can come in here with it when you can’t. You should leave. No one wants you here.” the old woman made a kind of shoo gesture and I felt my heart rate switch into a higher gear.
“I am thirty years old, not seventeen. My child and I have a right to be here, as do these other mothers.” I waved my hand towards a couple close by who were now standing up and watching along with, I realised, the rest of the place.
“After all the years you have lived and all the things you must have seen, How can you be so intolerant of other people and especially children?” I tuned to the old man.”You saw I was leaving. You could have waited just a couple of minuets until I was gone and then said to your wife, ‘thank God that noise is over’, but you decided to be rude, nasty and infect someone else with your negativity. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Goodbye. I hope you can now enjoy your coffee.” and with that I walked away.
A man from one of the other couples with a baby said to me, “They told us we should leave too.” I shook my head and carried on in desperate need of air.
I have been asking what is wrong with the world a lot recently, but seriously. What is wrong with the world?? (People like that!) And what is wrong with them? Why are they like that?!
Because they are old, bitter, twisted & don’t know any better?
I was brought up to respect my elders and I looked up to my grandparents a lot. They were wonderful, kind hearted, good natured and well traveled people. Which is why, when I got outside the shop I felt really upset.
No matter how horrible that couple was and even though what they said was shockingly rude and wrong, it still felt wrong to talk to them they way I did.
My grandad couldn’t handle or understand the concept of the Internet but that’s not to say he didn’t try. And he certainly didn’t take out his frustration and lack of understanding on others for it.
I guess maybe that’s what happens to people who were never aloud to express themselves as children, they grow up angry and suppressed and bark at the world with senseless hate.
Yeah, I’ll let my kid sing if he wants to, thanks.
Originally Published @ cusscake.blogspot.co.uk
January 25 2012 12:43am Pacific Standard Time
Leave a Reply