When i was young i was painfully shy and had social anxiety - not much has changed actually. I remember dreading going to birthday parties, playdates, school, gymnastics - anywhere. My little Eliza is the same way. She is perfectly happy to be with me all the time. She even pouts when i go out and leave her with her dad or grandma. I push her a little, but not too much because i understand.
The other day we were at the grocery store and an older grandma type in front of us tried to talk to her; the usual "what did you get for christmas?" Eliza ignored her, looking away pushing her tongue into her cheek ( a nervous habit). The lady then turned to me and proceeded to give me a huge lecture that went something like this:
"She doesn't talk to strangers?" "You know you CAN talk to strangers when mommy is around!" Eliza continued to ignore her. She went on..."It's a shame what you mothers are doing to children. They need to learn about community and watching out for their neighbours. You should really sign her up for a grandma program (?) and break her of this bad habit."
Ya da ya da ya da yawn. She went on and on like this. Never mind that she's not MY neighbour and sure as hell not part of my community. I was feeling pretty mad. My blood sugar was also dropping really fast and all i wanted to do was pay and get the hell out of there so that i could eat an orange.
So, finally she moved on to torment the cashier with her order of fifty little bags of bulk food and checking every single price and scan. I noticed at the end of her order a tub of tofu.
"Hey! I need tofu to go with the snap peas!"
And. And you know what i did... I stole her tofu. I picked it up from her side of the little divider bar and put it on mine. I watched carefully to make sure she didn't notice. And well Bobs Your Uncle!! She didn't notice and i did the highly civilized thing - stealing from a grandma!
OMG and WTF! I don't know what i was thinking. I'm gonna have to buy a lot of Tupperware from grandma down the street to make up for that one.
Posted by Jess at 01:42 PM Permalink
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Ha! A little personal revenge is a beautiful thing. :)
Posted by Dana | January 8, 2006 02:15 PM