Judgement day.

Err...week...

One of my biggest pet peeves is premature judgement.  Not that I haven't been found guilty because I would readily admit that one of my biggest weaknesses is judging others.  Not you, of course.  Just others.

=P

Needless to say, I have felt the sting of being judged more times than seems normal this past week and I don't know if it really is me or if it's something in the water.

Example #1:
On Thursday I needed a newspaper.  Conveniently there is a newspaper stand right in front of our local post office, which is less than a mile away.  So I went and pulled up in front of the newspaper dispenser, stuck on my hazards, and grabbed my change.  As I did that, a car pulled in behind me, apparently thinking I was moving forward...?  Not sure her thoughts, but she wasn't too pleased that I was stopped and getting out of my car in front of the newspaper dispenser so she sped her car around mine and yelled at me:  "THAT'S NOT A PARKING SPOT!!!"  I looked around to be sure it was me she was yelling at.  Apparently it was.  So she whipped her car in front of mine, stopped it and got out to drop mail in the mailbox.  Well, you know me, I'm just so sweet so I let her know, "that's not a parking spot."

"I'M JUST MAILING SOME PACKAGES"  


"Well, I'm just buying a newspaper."   So there.  And ironically we took the same amount of time, including me getting more change from my car because - FYI folks - newspapers cost a $1.  Of course, as fate would have it, I had to follow her the mile back to my house because she happened to be going the exact same direction as myself.  Awkward.

Example #2:
I had to go to the store today.  Fine. Great  Wonderful.  Fantastic.  I also had to take all three of my kids with me.  Fine. Great  Wonderful.  Fantastic.  And it's a Saturday in December.  Yeah...not so fine, great, wonderful OR fantastic.  Parking is ridiculous, friends, ridiculous.  So I grabbed a spot over yonder and trekked it towards the store.  With all three kids.  On a Saturday in December.  Oy.  Shopping was actually fine, except for one child spilling a water bottle all over the floor and another peeing their pants a stone's throw away from the bathroom, for which I had to tear off a jacket from another child to clean it up.  Fine, great, wonderful...really guys, just fantastic.  Not anything a super mom can't handle.  Although I do give myself props for thinking of the jacket-turned-towel.  Brilliant.

But then came the time to load the car with the groceries.  Fine.  And get the children in their seats and settled.  Great.  I was then stuck with a cart, and don't you forget that we parked "over yonder" so my options on what to do with the cart were limited.  Wonnnnderful.  I could park it behind the car next to me or jump it onto a nearby curb.  I sweetly (because that's how I do things) put it up on the curb and out of the way of traffic.  Fantastic.

Wouldn't you know that at that exact time the Honorable Judge was destined to walk past.  With a disgusted look on his face he blurted out  "Reeeally??"  Again, I did the look around to be sure it was me he was accusing.  Yep, definitely me.  This time I was exhausted and just let it go.  Of course he couldn't have seen me load three kids into my car.  And he definitely wasn't a mom, so he couldn't understand my fear of walking away from my car with such precious cargo inside, especially on a Saturday in December.  But to make his point even more brutally clear, he grabbed my cart and stared me down as he took it to its rightful place.  Umm, thank you?

I just sunk into my car seat and drove home feeling defeated and tried to encourage myself that I had done nothing wrong.  It's been a rough week.

What's the point of this particular blog?  I guess it's this:
-If you're being prematurely judged, consider the reality that they don't know your whole story and, in their minds, they think they're right.
-If you're prematurely judging, consider the reality that you don't know the whole story and you may very well be wrong.
-Don't give your child a water bottle in the grocery store.
-Visit the bathroom frequently.