Drive by of the Day - September 15, 2006

Rosina at Tied to the Tracks posted her own drive by story, which she initially had writen as a comment on Chez Miscarriage's blog. Her experience will be familiar to many--another woman insisting that Rosina's parenting skills were seriously lacking--but what I loved about her story is that she was able to respond in the moment. No apologies, no explanations, no thinking of a great reply ten minutes later. Rosina told off the woman right then and there. I only hope I can do the same the next time I'm in her shoes.

Here's an excerpt from her post The Funny Little Universe

Suddenly an older woman, maybe seventy, dressed to the nines, comes swooping in from nowhere, and leans between me and Elisabeth to grab her hand and pull her thumb out of her mouth. She says in this outraged way: don't you know that's the worst thing you can let her do?

I immediately pushed myself back between the woman and Elisabeth and said, Don't you know better than to touch other people's children? (In the meantime, Elisabeth had retrieved her thumb and was watching with great interest.)

The woman's mouth dropped open and then she pulled herself up and said, I raised three children, you could do with some advice. I've been listening to you talk to that baby for the last ten minutes as if she understood even a word of what you say to her.

I debated giving her an impromtu lecture on language acquisition and the difference between passive and active language skills, but I was too angry. I said, you keep your hands to yourself. And your advice, too.