#268 Kind lady advice at Aldi

Advice and Aldi seem to come hand in hand. I came across it today after I had been on the Main street with baby girl, and had received two unpleasant looks from an older man when she had been shrieking at a nearby fly.

She hates bugs. She is my daughter, after all.

She was waving around the Hula Hoop I had just bought her, pretending to hula it on her arm, and showing me how she was going to do it from her leg – I kept reigning her in, pushing my trolley onwards, looking back at her, and trying to work out if I was going to buy any brie from there.

Standing in the cold aisle, I once again pulled her in closer to me as she waved the hoop around. A lady had been near me with her own trolley, and after I checked her for what seemed like the 5th time in a minute (“Be careful baby girl, you could hit someone”) this lady leaned forward and said

“Shhh.”

“She’s happy,” she continued to me, whispering. “Leave her.”

I really appreciated her understanding. I smiled and replied “I know, but there are some people…” I trailed off, thinking of the old man I’d just seen on the Main street, letting the woman fill in the blanks with her own scenario.

“I know,” she replied. “I’ve been there, done that. But just ignore them. Pretend you can’t see them.”

I laughed. This woman’s understanding was tops. She added that they’re only little for so long, and then as she moved past us, trying to get past a waving Hula-Hooped baby girl, she said “beep beep!”

Baby girl did a “beep beep!” back, and I was immediately grateful to this woman for her unnecessary, yet-so-longed for kindness, her understanding, and the fact that she verbalised it when I needed to hear it.

You know, it’s a really hard stage that I’m going through with baby girl. I write lovely and beautiful things about her, because that IS my gratitude blog… but simultaneously, post-moving house, and during these tumultuous 3 year-old days, I find myself getting upset and yelling every day. It’s tough. It’s trying. it’s challenging, and it’s emotional too. When I have people looking at me, and baby girl in disappointment, like the old codger on the Main street, I feel sad. It’s hard enough keeping baby girl in line, without the added looks from passers by. I feel like saying “what, were you a perfect child? Are her shrieks interrupting the frequency of your hearing aid? She has as much right to be here as you do… walk on.”

So when I come across someone who has a nice thing to say, who understands, and who is subsequently kind to baby girl… It really makes my day.

Thank you lady.