It’s not too often that I spend much time mulling over the general lack of responsibility and accountability that I encounter in my day-to-day, nor often that I allow myself to be irked by people’s ignorance of common courtesy. One has only to step beyond one’s own front door to discover that some people just couldn’t care less about anyone but themselves or that it is indeed, a dog-eat-dog world. But every so often I am pushed beyond my limits when I encounter that sort of behavior in persons who by virtue of their experiences should know better: mothers.
Flashback to Friday. Let me set the scene. Pressed to fetch up some gifts for celebrations over the next few weeks, I decided to pack in the darlings and my already prego belly and drive a gruesome thirty-five minutes to a local mall in the rain. Ordinarily I’d just hit our lovely overpriced town center, but this distant mall had all of the stores I needed to peruse, so I made the drive.
Instead of lugging out both or one of our handy Maclarens, (I’m still not supposed to be doing any lifting) I decided to opt for the Westie Kangaroo Kiddie Kruisers (aka germ-laden little red mall cars for two – or one). Of course, after dragging both children through the rainy parking lot and consoling Drama Queen after a wet spill, I made it to the concierge desk only to be told that I’d have to wait for someone else to return a stroller. Ah, patience. What a virtue.
Fifteen minutes later, as I was concluding my shopping at a local kiosk, only about fifteen feet from the concierge desk, mind you, I spotted a mom returning a Kruiser. I grabbed my receipt, my two girls, the diaper bag, our jackets, and my bag and made my way towards the car as quick as I could only to be cut off by some bitch with two way older children (let’s say seven and four) who had just walked in, coats still on, wet and everything. I just stood there in disbelief exclaiming out loud: “I can’t freakin’ believe this! I’ve been waiting right over there for fifteen minutes!” The kicker was what the bitch did next. She turned around looked right at me, kids, bags, belly and all, gave me a “well- that’s -your –problem” look and proceeded to finish getting settled in the stroller. Now to stop myself from jumping on her back, pulling out her natty hair and beating the frumpy mommy pulp out of her (not something I would have liked my girls to see, but which I could have easily done spurred on by hormones and mall heat) I turned to the concierge signaling her to intervene while simultaneously reminding her rather loudly that I had been waiting all that time. The concierge’s answer was even more infuriating than the woman’s behavior: that there is a no holding policy and that I needed to, and I quote, “jump on a Kruiser as soon as it becomes available like this lady did.” OH MY GOD!
Is it me, or is this madness? If I were that woman (and I’m not just saying this because I’m the one who got the short end of the stick this time around - I really would) I would have turned to the concierge to confirm, apologized for the misunderstanding and surrendered the cart. The bitch just walked away. In the concierge’s case, I also would have done my job to see justice served. What the hell? Am I just too good? Have I yet to smother the life out of themommynicekelly?
So of course, I can’t help but still be wondering this fine Monday morning: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
That is unbelieveable.
What mall was that?
Believe it or not… Westfield Shopping Mall in Trumbull. Sickening, isn’t it?
OH…and just to be clear. I followed up with the concierge later as I was waiting my second time around. She’s also a mother of two who are still young enough to be watching Noggin!
Well that stinks. If there was no holding policy then the concierge should have made that clear at the beginning so you could have hung around at the desk and annoyed her.
That’s a sucky situation! I’m sorry you had to go through it.