The other day, I was stuck behind two slow, elderly ladies taking up the entire aisle in the grocery store. I wasn’t in a hurry, so I just walked slowly behind them.
A man behind me, however, WAS in a hurry. As he rudely pushed past the women, he swore. He used the baddest of the bad words in a string of other bad words. While he used his colorful language, he made sure to look me in the eye with a conspiratory look that said, “Can you believe these old ladies? Us young people have places to be.”
I’m not sure what he saw in my facial response, but I can guarantee you it did not match his own conspiratory look. I vaguely remember saying, “Are you serious?” but not in a loud enough voice for him to hear.
How did it ever become ok to use that language for something as minor as being held up for 5 seconds? How did it ever become ok to use that language in front of my 2 year old daughter? How did it ever become ok for a young person to be so blatantly rude and disrespectful to the elderly? I know this makes ME sound stuffy and old fashioned, but come on! Not ok!
I hate my slow, real life response time. I can now think of a dozen things I could have said to that man. Like, “Don’t use that language in front of my child.” Or, “How about POLITELY asking the nice women to move?” Or, “Why in the world are you assuming I am going to side with you on this one, buddy? You’re a nutcase.”
But instead, all I did was give him an un-conspiratory look and mutter “Are you serious?” in a too soft voice. If only real world time were like blogging time, where I have minutes to formulate and edit a response. I would have shown him.
Thankfully, the elderly women were also hard of hearing and hard of noticing their surroundings. I doubt they had any idea what had transpired inches away from them.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Personally I’d go for that third response. Much more my style and a lot more fun. I love how “nutcase” just rolls off the tongue! But I agree–since when do people think they can get away with being so rude and disrespectful? I can’t stand it!
so i added this blog to my blog list. why did i never do it before.? i will half to look at this one more anyways cuz you update it more. and i love it. it looks really great. really professional. your story at the pool WAS quite entertaining. thanks for sharing.!
I have the same problem with not coming up with the correct response in real time. Even now I think about things that happened 10 years ago and wonder what I should have said. It’s a sickness.
In situations like that I always feel that we will all be old someday, we will all be in the way at sometime and we will all hold someone up at some point. A little patience and kindness please.