Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What a Jerk

I am so sick and tired of all the looks and comments about my son's shrieking.  JT can't talk and so his preferred method of showing any strong emotion is shrieking, whether it be sad, frustrated, angry, playful, happy, overwhelmed, hurt, excited or just when he wants to say, "Hey!  Look what I can do!"  So, as you can imagine, out in public we get a LOT of glares that clearly say, "Can't you control your son?"  

So yesterday I was in the store with my little sister, when my son got angry at something and let out a really shrill one.  This middle aged woman was standing about 8 feet away.  She not only gave me MAJOR stink eye but as she was walking away she actually said, "Come on lady.  Control your kid."  I was about to turn around and ignore her like I ignore everyone who says things like this to me but I saw my sister's face.  Slack jawed, pale and wide eyed it looked like she had been slapped.  She was right.  So I turned back around and said, "Excuse me?"  

"Your son just screamed right in my ear!"

"I am sorry my son is DISABLED and CAN'T SPEAK!  You JERK!"

Yes, I pulled out the disabled card.  But I wanted to run her down and tell her just how much I despised people like her that get so hateful that they have to deal with my son's shrieking for 5 seconds of their lives.  They think THEY don't want to hear it?  I hear it all day everyday for everything!  Some people have said things to me when he shrieked for joy.  I am not going to discipline my son for showing happiness.  And no, I am not going to discipline him for showing UNhappiness either.  He has the right to say how he feels even though we may not always like hearing it.  It isn't like he carries on doing it for minutes at a time it is just one long blast.

I hope I was never thought someone was a "bad mom" just because of something like this.  Why don't people just realize they don't always know the whole story and they just need to give a mom a break.

5 comments:

tiptoe mama said...

I'm like you. I try to cut people slack for their absolute ignorance ---But I can't tell you how many times I have drempt of doing exactly what you did! All I can do is giggle about it and say "You go girl!" :)

Jessica said...

BRAVO!! I take my hat off to you! Thank you for being the voice that I dont have the back bone to have! I feel like that all the time... Instead of speking up and calling the person out I run to my car and cry like a baby that people are so mean. Good for you, you know what I just might start speaking up. thank you!

ks said...

I am so proud of you!!! I think the only thing that would have made it better (for me) was if instead of JERK, you called her a Bigot. Because that is what that was!

Melissa said...

Katie, I am so proud of you! I am sooo tired of people like that! They are so fast to judge, they don't even stop to think there may be a reason why he was shrieking. His shriek is really cute too, if you ask me! I wish we all had the guts to say something when people are rude... maybe if we all could, there would be less comments made. Who knows? But I am so glad you had hte courage to stand up and say something. Yea!!!

Happy in Holland said...

I am with you and defend you all the way. I hope she feels bad and will think twice before passing judgement next time.