Thursday, April 2, 2009

Nah, but that's what lt I was thinking.

There was a comedian from back in the day who used that line in his act all the time. I was reminded of that the other day.

Let me set the scene:

It's school photo pickup day at daycare and I take a break from work and to run over to make my selections. BD was picking Playette up at around the same time so that he could take her to ST, but he politely declined from taking on the task of picking pictures. He's a smart man.

Anyway, so there's this long table in the room. The photo hustlers ask you your child's name and then bring a packet over to you filled with $8,794 worth of photos for you to choose from, along with a price sheet that is more confusing than it needs to be so that they can get you appropriately loopy and stick you for your papers.

I remembered when these photos were taken a few weeks ago and I was prepared to be unimpressed at at least and get a good laugh out of it at best. I had done Playette's hair up that morning and dressed her nicely, full well knowing that her outfit would be ruined by breakfast and her hair wouldn't be far behind. I packed a second nice outfit, but told her provider that I had low expectations and not to go out of her way to try and make my child look "perfect."

I remember being a kid and getting yelled at for my barrette not being turned the right way in my second grade picture, being forced to wear a horribly uncomfortable party dress in my third grade portrait that was taken at the end of the day (after recess) and getting in trouble for messing that one up, and then failing miserably at trying to recreate my seventh grade picture without my mother knowing because I knew she wouldn't like the way the original one turned out.

So, yeah, I was trying to be very relaxed about the whole thing because I know I'm prone to Picture Day Psychosis.

Gosh, I have a hard time telling a quick story, don't I?

Anyway...

I'm looking at the pictures that they displayed for me.

Aww, they're kinda cute! And I did laugh. In one, she's super posey and reminds me of something I've seen before.

As I'm going back and forth, trying to make a decision, keeping in mind that I really don't want to spend a fortune on this, another mother walks up. I know her face, but I can't remember from where. When her photos are brought over, I realize that she's the mom of the little boy that loves Playette. I mean loves.

He gets excited to see her every morning and gives her lots of hugs. I don't know what it is. He's bigger than Playette too, and I don't think he realizes that he's a lot stronger and more stable on his feet than she is. Regardless, I know he means no harm and it's cute so I let them have their moments even though...hm.

Well, so this nosey mom glances over at Playette's photos and goes:

"She's all tongue, isn't she?"

WHA?!

Who says that?

So, I'm all:

"Well, at least she doesn't have scabies."

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Ok, so I didn't.

But that's what I was thinking.

What I really said was:

"Yup, tongue and drool."

And I was ok. Which is great. For me.

Sure I thought she was rude and classless, but I didn't take it to heart. I honestly have shed no tears over this incident. Yay, me!

So my daughter has a small mouth and therefore her tongue protrudes. We're working on it and one day it won't. Do I wish that people would shut up about it already? Sure, I do. But I can't control their lack of home training. Seriously? This comment comes up all the time. I think people think it's cute? Or something?

I give most folks the benefit of the doubt. They can't possibly know how much it bugs me.

Of course, when it came to this lady, I still had the option of breaking it down to her about Ds (I'm guessing, hoping, that she had no idea of Playette's dx when she said what she did) and making her feel really, really small. I would have been totally within my rights to do so, I think. I just didn't feel like it at that particular time.

One day, I hope to be one of those people that can educate and not just react in an emotional manner, whether it's actual or just in my head. But I never really know what I'm going to do until it happens these days. I'm a little stressed by life in general right now and taking the time to educate the masses in situations such as this is so not on my to-do list.

Sure I have my soapbox issues. But that's my choice, which is what I think is the difference. I can write a post or a letter on my time and I'm typically not being blindsided by ignorance in the midst of it.

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And, yes, someone in that room did have scabies a few weeks ago. All I know for sure is it wasn't my kid. And I was disgusted.

I've narrowed the carrier down though, so let's just hope that mom doesn't mess with me again.

6 comments:

Tricia said...

Not, by any means, to make this a non-issue, because I know it is...and I KNOW how disheartening and painful the tongue comments can be, I also find it mildly amusing that I think, on EVERY DS blog that I read regularly (and have read for a couple years now), I think we ALL write/wrote about this at some point. It's not easy, we're STILL working on the tongue thing over here, and it blew/blows my mind every time someone mentions it about G too...but I just want to say, I HEAR you. And tongue or no, that girl is gorgeous.

But you know that! :)

Lisa said...

I swear, it just never ceases to amaze me how often people will open their mouths and let pure shit fly out. Wow. Anyway, yay you, indeed.

sheree said...

you crack me up. I kinda wish you really DID say the scabies remark. That would have been priceless.

We get the tongue comment ALL the time too. It's annoying. I here it EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. we go to the grocery store. It's like "SHUT UP ALREADY!"

Anyway, scan those pics! I wanna see :)

The Boltz Family said...

We get the tongue comment here all too often. People seem to think it is funny. I am not sure if people realize it is a DS thing, because surely then they would not say something. Oh wait, that is in the ideal world.

The Boltz Family said...

We get the tongue comment here all too often. People seem to think it is funny. I am not sure if people realize it is a DS thing, because surely then they would not say something. Oh wait, that is in the ideal world.

Michelle said...

that sure was a rude comment! Geesh! The most frequent comments I got about Kayla when she was a baby/toddler were "she sure likes to play with her tongue a lot doesn't she?" or "she really likes to stick her tongue out huh?" I never quite knew how to respond to those either. I just kinda smiled and nodded but didn't know how to educate; I just have never felt comfortable in that role ... sigh...