Dirty looks
Jacob and I were doing a little shopping today at the Nordstrom Rack. Jacob was in his stroller, playing happily , "talking" with me, and laughing. A few people looked over and smiled at Jacob since he was being such a good little boy and making happy noises. All seemed well as I looked through all the racks for a pair of slacks for Ryan. However, things quickly changed...
I knelt down to look for shirts on the bottom level of a table, which brought me down to the same level as Jacob. He thought it was the greatest thing to have me eye-level with him. He started laughing, and then he started hitting a really high-pitched shriek! He wasn't upset, he expresses his complete joy with a shriek. People suddenly started giving me dirty looks, probably thinking to themselves "Can't she control her kid!" I felt bad since Jacob's screams were a little ear-piercing (if you've heard them, you know what I mean), but how can I control a 7 1/2 month old? The more I tried to talk with him in a whisper to bring it down, the more he shrieked with joy - he thought I was the funniest thing in the world! I tried distracting him, but he was on a roll.
So, what did I do?
I grabbed my stuff and ran.
Not really - thankfully, he calmed down once I took him out of the stroller and I was able to pay for my stuff. Although, I was left thinking about giving parents dirty looks. Jacob was obviously laughing and happy - not crying out for attention. I know I've been guilty of this in the past, but shouldn't people try to look at the kid and access the situation before handing out those looks? Should I have apologized to my fellow shoppers for having a vocal, happy boy? I'm having conflicting thoughts about the situation. What would you have done?
I knelt down to look for shirts on the bottom level of a table, which brought me down to the same level as Jacob. He thought it was the greatest thing to have me eye-level with him. He started laughing, and then he started hitting a really high-pitched shriek! He wasn't upset, he expresses his complete joy with a shriek. People suddenly started giving me dirty looks, probably thinking to themselves "Can't she control her kid!" I felt bad since Jacob's screams were a little ear-piercing (if you've heard them, you know what I mean), but how can I control a 7 1/2 month old? The more I tried to talk with him in a whisper to bring it down, the more he shrieked with joy - he thought I was the funniest thing in the world! I tried distracting him, but he was on a roll.
So, what did I do?
I grabbed my stuff and ran.
Not really - thankfully, he calmed down once I took him out of the stroller and I was able to pay for my stuff. Although, I was left thinking about giving parents dirty looks. Jacob was obviously laughing and happy - not crying out for attention. I know I've been guilty of this in the past, but shouldn't people try to look at the kid and access the situation before handing out those looks? Should I have apologized to my fellow shoppers for having a vocal, happy boy? I'm having conflicting thoughts about the situation. What would you have done?
posted by Berenice at
4:29 PM
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