It may be my lack of sleep this week, so this could all be in the eye of the beholder. There I was, at the grocery store, fussy baby in the cart, unloading my hordes of groceries onto the belt. Sometimes, I like to do self-checkout (our store has lines for larger orders) so that I can bag it myself, but I knew that today, Luke would not be cooperative. So, there I am, and someone comes up behind us, and I think he's trying to make friends with Luke as many people do. Then I realized he was talking to me and asking if he could go ahead with his 2 items since I had a large cartful. Let me just say that by looking at him, I could tell that he was not very aware of the challenges that moms face trying to do things while carting around a toddler, much less a fussy one. So, what do you say?? "I'm sorry, I really need to get done as fast as possible"...or "No, I was here first"...or "How about you try shopping with a toddler and then ask me again"...or "There's no waiting at the Self-Checkout Express lane over there." I decided to be nice and do the guy a favor, so I said, "Sure, fine," but I said it a bit tersely hoping that he would get the hint that he really shouldn't ask a favor from a mom with a fussy child.
Well...then I realized that there was a reason why this gentleman needed to go through this particular lane. He had tried to go once and hadn't spent the requisite $25 to use his $5 coupon, so he went and found 2 additional items, leaving the rest of his order piled behind the nice lady. So, there I stood, unconsciously dropping my jaw to the floor in disbelief as the checker rang up the other 10-15 items he was purchasing. Then, he was having difficulty using the credit card machine and he kept trying to sign at the wrong time, so all of this took more time than I was really willing to give as a favor to a total stranger. Had it been another mother or father, or someone who just looked like they were having a rough day and needed something to go his or her way, I would have gladly offered to let them go ahead. I guess the gentleman did give me something in return - he gave me something to blog about today other than teething.