Mean People Suck!

Warning...this is a total vent!!

I've tried to let this go all day....but as I'm sitting here listening to Alex's nigh time lullabies play as she's peacefully sleeping and oblivious to today's events, I'm still compelled to vent!!!

Aaron and I love our morning coffee...and we were out - so after I got Zach off the bus I decided to load her up in the car and head to Bed Bath and Beyond with my 20% off coupon to get coffee. Now, Alex LOVES to be out in the car and gets VERY excited and sometimes I do question why I am venturing out on my own with her, but I leave the house with her and Zach and she's screaming and yelling, biting her hands and pulling her hair - nothing out of the ordinary...but today she's especially excited and literally almost gets me in a car accident because she's so excited yelling and kicking that she literally kicks the back of my head rest as I'm driving. We get to Bed Bath and Beyond and by the time I load her in her adaptive stroller (I opted to leave the heavy wheel chair at home since the stroller was already in my car), she is squealing quite loudly as we walk in the store. I'm trying to cover her mouth and steer her stroller at the same time, keep Zach from the candy he's just spotted, and just get in and out of the store as quickly as possible - but, the aisles at the store are SO narrow and so not conducive to her stroller that she's extending her legs and pretty much knocking almost everything off the shelves that we pass. OK, I admit it, I'm human and I'm frustrated! I get my coffee and we leave. I'm now in a bit of a mood and I SHOULD have headed home after that outing debacle, BUT, I really wanted to go the bookstore and get a book on puring food. So...I head over to a local bookstore (to protect the innocent, I wont mention them by name.) I pull into a handicap spot and there are two people in the car next to me that happen to catch my eye and as I make eye contact they are shaking their heads at me, like how dare I pull into a handicap spot. So I get out of my car, open her door, open the back of trunk, pull out her stroller, and make a sweeping hand gesture at Alex, like clearly I parked in this spot for her, not for me...yet they are still shaking their head at me like I did something wrong. Whatever, they're ignorant...I continue on in the store. We get inside and Alex starts her loud squealing again because she's excited to be in the store. I try and quiet her down, look around for what I'm there for so we can get in and out without more of a scene. I scan all of the areas and see the kids section, art, music, travel, photography, book clubs, New York Times best sellers, self help, etc. - but not what I'm looking for. So I walk up to a salesperson and ask "Excuse me, but can you tell me where I might find cook books?" - he honestly looks at me, and then looks at Alex with the clearest look of disgust and says, "yeah, it would be behind you under the section that says cooking"...clearly I can't imply the tone of his voice, but I was literally shocked by his response. I'm already pretty frazzled, so I bite my tongue and walk towards the cook book section. I decide on two books, take Zach to the kids section, let him pick out two books and we head to the register to pay. We go to leave the store and I'm trying to navigate Alex's chair out the door, Zach, and my pretty large bag of purchases. There are two double doors that lead outside that I'm clearly having a hard time navigating and there's a woman just standing there STARING at us. I ask Zach (in her ear shot) to open the door for me. He's clearly having a hard time getting the door open because it's heavy and she's still standing there, staring...no offer of help. Zach finally gets the door half open and I push the rest of it open with her chair. There's still another set of doors we need to get through and she's still just standing there!!! Zach finally pushes the other door open and she says "isn't your little helper just so cute". Oh my god, I wanted to strangle her....would it have been so hard for her to help hold the door open for us?????????? Then my sweet Zach turns to her and says would you like me to hold the door for you too??? Sigh. Then, I finally get outside and Alex has kicked off one of her shoes that was about three feet from the car. I am CLEARLY struggling to get her in her car seat and THREE, not one, not two, but THREE people passed by her shoe, looked at me, looked at her and KEPT walking. Seriously? Would it have killed one of them to pick her shoe up and bring it to me???? In the span of 20 minutes, to encounter so many blatantly rude people really just set me over the edge. How is it my five year has more compassion than every one I encountered today???

If you're reading this and you've never encountered a special needs child, or their frazzled mom, and you happen to, please just open a door, say a kind word, or just smile, even if you don't mean it - believe me, it will make that Mom's day just that much more bearable.