Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Whiney Whys

I don't mean to whine, complain, nor be judgmental, BUT why are so many things considered okay to do now?

For example in a department store:
  • Why is it okay for kids to ride the bikes for sale inside a store?  Isn't this dangerous for both the child and other customers, never mind the fact that I was hoping to buy a NEW bike for my child or grandchild.
  • Why is it okay to bounce the balls in the store?  I know they will look used soon after bouncing them on the driveway, but again I'm paying for new merchandise.  Can I get a discount for used?  ...I didn't think so.
In a grocery store:
  • Why is it okay to hand a kid a bag of grapes or a banana from the bunch to eat while shopping?  Both are sold by the pound, and I didn't see any provision for weighing your kid before starting to eat, though you could put him or her on the scales at the register when checking out.

At restaurants:
  • Why is it okay to build a fort out of the individual serving creamers, butters and sugar containers?  Oh, and wear the bowls they were in on your head, like perhaps you needed a construction worker's hard hat or a crown.  I guess it is pretty hard for a four year old to understand that though when your father and mother are helping construct the condiment castle and teaching you how to put them back so neatly no one will ever suspect you have had the bowls and food in your very grubby, marker stained hands.  I'll bet the bedroom walls are beautiful.
But then, Mom and Dad don't want to stifle creativity.  And there are some self-esteem issues, doncha know.
But it isn't really even all about the kids' poor behavior then is it?  Sometimes the adults don't even HAVE kids with them...
  • like the lady at the salad bar at the grocery store who filled her container so full she couldn't close it, so she had to put some of the olives back using her fingers.  I mean, really, what else could she have done?  She couldn't close her container.  She didn't want to dirty the tongs in the olive serving dish. (What?  Wait.  That's right, those were tongs for putting them in.  There must not have been any return-tongs!)  She knew her hands were very clean.  Hmmm, but there was that grocery cart handle...oh, and the purse strap the baby chewed on..wait, did she wash her hands after she fixed her shoe and tidied her hair, scratched her nose and... ummm.  I wouldn't worry about it. 
  • and the guy who makes sandwiches with those protective gloves on.  The protective gloves are not meant to protect you from my sandwich.  They are to keep my sandwich clean.  So.....if the gloves are dirty...then my sandwich...do you see where I'm going?  Yup, your hands will still be clean.  My sandwich, not so much.  So stop opening registers, handling money and pushing your hair out of your face with with them on while you make my sandwich, please.

I guess I did want to whine, complain and be judgmental.  How'd I do?
I promise, I won't whine tomorrow!

10 comments:

  1. If I had time, I could give you all the sociological reasons for this stuff, but it wouldn't help anyway.

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    1. Oh, the lists could just go on and on. I think this is why we don't live 400 years anymore. Who could take it?

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  2. :) saw some of these very things this weekend...and I think...that is why I didn't get to go to restaurants with my kiddos or the mall for years and years...

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    1. My kids always held my hand in malls and parking lots - they don't seem to any more. And for a long time I didn't buy them a toy when they were with me in a store; for the longest time they thought stores were just "toy museums" where you could look but not touch - they didn't realize you could actually buy one!

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  3. These things are not considered OK, and I don't think they ever have been. It's just inconsiderate people doing inconsiderate things -- something that has always been around, even back to the prehistoric days of Ogg using the river as a bathroom up-steam while the other cave-people are trying to clean their furs on the rocks downstream.

    It's a mix of some people not even realizing what they're doing, and others not even caring what others think because it's all about them. Narcissism is nothing new -- society just evolves new ways for it to be expressed. ;)

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    1. I guess that's true. I just know that my parents were careful that we were always mindful of others feelings and property. Now, I can't say that I ALWAYS am...but I usually eventually think of what it is I am doing and stop in embarrassment! I guess it took growing up to notice what others were maybe always doing!

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  4. Ugh...I was nodding my head at every one of them - sad to say that it's become pretty rountine to see all of the above in an average day.:(

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    1. And there are more, if I really want to get myself in a tizzy! But I'll stop and now focus on the positive for tomorrow.

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  5. We have some of the same pet peeves, Donna. That sandwich-handling thing is for sure one of mine!

    BTW: I do not let my daughter eat any food in the store until we purchase it even if she works herself into a tizzy. Quite frankly, that's shoplifting. Plain and simple.

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  6. Me too, me too! But I love the comment about the cavemen, think that's true too. I'm not to shy anymore & sometimes speak up... Thanks for saying it for many of us!

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