Filed under: Lifestyle, Family togetherness, Doing it myself, Tantrums, Adventures in Parenting, Emotions, Exploring, Whining and DiningWhile waiting in a coffee shop the other day for my to-go order to be prepared, I took a seat in a comfy armchair and started flipping through magazines. On the table beside me, I put my pocketbook and two bottled drinks I just bought. A few minutes later I was startled from my magazine by an adorable blond pig-tailed little girl, probably around three years old, maybe a couple months younger. She'd come up in front of me and was pointing out some feature on the wall to our right--the plant maybe, or a picture, I wasn't really paying attention. I smiled. It's my first response when approached by kids. But apparently this little one saw my smile as an invitation to never leave me alone again. She started talking to me. Asking me questions, scooting closer, until her body was pressed up against my knee.
Starting to feel rather awkward I began scanning the coffee shop for the whereabouts of her caregiver. I mean, a friendly hello is one thing. An entire conversation with a random three year old is another. Not to mention that at this point she had physically reached out, picked up my pocket book and tried to open it before I gently removed it from her hands. She then went for my beverages, trying to pick them up one after the other, twisting the tops. Again I gently removed them, muttering that they weren't for her to touch, but at this point I was kind of feeling invaded and annoyed.
Her mother eventually did meander across the room, but instead of apologizing for her child's in my opinion rude behavior, she just hovered nearby, snapping occasionally at her daughter if she tried to touch my stuff again.
Was I wrong to expect the mother to apologize for her child's behavior? Even if her child had a learning disability or handicap--which is what I always consider when I make generalizations about a child's behavior--the mother could have said something simple like, "She's really working on respecting other people's space" or "She still doesn't quite get that it's not okay to touch other people's stuff," and all would have been well and good. Or? Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments



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