Turning Circles

This has been one of the longest weekends for Tim and I, not necessarily in the best possible way. We had one the most disturbing experiences since becoming parents that took place on Friday night, that I just keeping running around and around in my head...

Both of us got home late from work and errands on Friday night, and decided that we would go out to dinner. So we went to a little local family restaurant. As we were sitting and waiting for our food, McKenna started to squeal. Not a tantrum or yell, when she get excited or wants something, she has this high pitched "girly" squeal. She was making noise, but Tim and I were keeping her entertained with snacks and playing with her...Then the unbelievable...

This older man in his 60's came around the corner and started to walk past until he stopped and said, "Is that your kid making the noise?" Me thinking that he was going to say something like What is all the noise about, you know in a joking way, like I usually get if she squeals like that... No, not so much. Tim responded, yes. Then this man proceeded to start yelling and us...not talking, yelling...as loud as he could, to where everyone in the restaurant turned and were looking...some people started to "boo" this guy. In the middle of his first yelling sentence or two, Tim said, "Are you serious???". This man yelled, "Yes, I am serious, you may not care what your children do, but the rest of us want to have a quiet, uninterrupted dinner. You need to learn how to control your children." He actually said that we needed to control our children several times. Even after he saw that McKenna was a baby, and he didn't know that we had "children" until he walked around to where we were sitting cause Griffin had taken a transformer car with him and had hardly talked because he was engrossed with transforming. Not to mention there were TV's everywhere with ESPN on half and Winnie the Pooh on the others.

I was literally in a state of shock, and as this guy continued with his voice raised, he started to walk away and Tim told him what he thought of him, the best way possible since we had our kids with us. After the man walked away, a couple of people around us came up and said to ignore him. Since this a local family owned restaurant, the owner was there and came up and apologized and tried to accommodate us for the rest of the meal. But after she came up, I lost it...Pathetically, I just started crying, uncontrollably...our food came out at that moment, so I told Tim we needed to leave and we took our food to go. I felt the need to go for several reasons, I was crying and couldn't see my plate...Griffin was confused to what just happened, and McKenna was still squealing and I didn't know the mind set of this man and I had children to protect. So we walked out to car and when I was inside the car with the kids, Tim went back in and really told this guy what he thought of him.

I think that I was so emotional, because this was such a heartless thing to do. Such a mean, cruel thing, that happened in front of my children. You know when you are in a situation and wish you knew what to say at that moment, or what to do, only to sit on it later and wished you would have handled it different. I felt trapped as to what to do in that moment. This man needed to know what he had done was completely inappropriate, rude and intolerable. But at the same time, how do you articulate that when your children are present, so you don't have to justify your actions if you handle the situation poorly. I do so desperately wish that I could go back to that night and start over. Both Tim and I do, as we have been reliving this event all weekend and wish we could go back and start over. Since Tim did go back in, he got a little relief, but I didn't even say anything to this man. I know that this will never be seen by this person but for my own sense of moving on...To you sir I say this:

I am so sorry that my daughter was making noise, she was not throwing a tantrum, she was just excited. I am sorry that you did not have a quiet, uninterrupted dinner. Maybe if want a dinner like that, I would suggest staying home or going to an adult restaurant, not a family restaurant with Winnie the Pooh on the TV's. Furthermore, when you came around the corner and saw that the noise was coming from a one year old, you should have walked away. When you saw that we had another child with us, you should have walked away. If you really felt that way, you should have talked to your waitress or the owner. You sir should be ashamed of yourself, for behaving that way in place full of children. Children including my own that witnessed your repulsive behavior. We made the decision to leave not because our daughter was making noise, but because we had to explain to our son why a person would come up to his family and yell horrible things to them, and let him know if he ever chooses to behave that way there will be consequences and he will be punished. So when you look in the mirror, I hope you are happy with the reflection, because I am sad for the lack of joy and happiness that is obviously missing from your life.

Okay, I feel a little better...