gall – the trait of being rude and impertinent; inclined to take liberties in a manner that is rude and insulting
On Friday nights we routinely eat dinner at the local Chili’s restaurant. If you know the place, it is normally loud and crazy with lots of families .
Melissa and her friend Jaime get a table for themselves and Kathy and I join Jaime’s mom Randi at our own table. We always get tables close by so we can keep an eye on them. The girls order for themselves and generally have a great time chatting and playing cards. This is our way of encouraging their independence and social development.
Last Friday Melissa invited another friend, Aaron, to join her and Jaime. They were having a great time, laughing and generally cutting up. I didn’t think anything of it … that is until this woman walked over to Melissa and while standing over her said, “you are the most obnoxious person I have ever seen!” and then turned and walked toward the door to leave.
I watched the entire thing. I could feel the hair standing on the back of my neck and my face flushed. How dare that woman tell-off my daughter! In less than a second I was out of my seat following this woman and her husband as they left the restaurant. I was right behind them as they walked into the parking lot. Once outside she started “bitching” at her husband about “those obnoxious kids.”
Before she could get a good rant going I interrupted her.
“Ma’am” I said as she turned to face me. “Did you have a problem with those young people in there?” I think that at first she might have thought that I had a problem as well and was going to join her in her fit of anger.
“Yes!” she replied. But before she could say anymore I said “didn’t you notice that they are special-needs kids?”
“I don’t care what they are,” she replied through clenched teeth. “They ruined my dinner with their shouting and laughing.”
At this point the husband was hustling over to their car clearly embarrassed that his b*tch of a wife was making such a scene.
“Well you SHOULD CARE … and you should be a little more tolerant of people who are challenged” was my response.
She just shrugged it off and began walking to their car which was parked on the front row. And that got me even angrier.
“I bet if you had a loved-one with special needs you would think twice about what you just did” I told her. She spun around and said that she does have a loved-one with special needs. “I bet you wouldn’t talk to them like you just did you those kids inside,” I replied.
But I couldn’t let it go. As she opened her car door I called her a “rude b*tch” while wagging my finger at her. The husband started the car and they drove off as quickly as possible.
When I got back inside to our table, Kathy asked me what happened (she hadn’t seen the woman approach Melissa).
After telling the story, she sort of chuckled telling me that this sort of thing has happened to her in the past – and this is just my “first taste” of dealing with rude, insensitive people.
She recalled a time long ago when Melissa was young and she had her in a stroller in the mall (because Melissa can’t walk long distances) and a woman approached her and told her in a curt voice … “she is TOO OLD to be in that stroller.”
Or the time that she parked in a handicap spot (using her handicap permit) and some man watching her made a comment about those spots being reserved for people with “REAL” needs – at which time she told him that Melissa has a heart problem as if it was any of his business and that she should just call the cops if he didn’t like it!
I guess that there will always be insensitive, rude people in our world, but it doesn’t mean that I have to like it.
Would you share your encounters with rude, insensitive people?
PEACE