Monday, March 1, 2010

The Friend Thing Again

I do honestly try to not judge people.  I accept differences and appreciate them.  Having said that, it is becoming more and more obvious that I don't actually like too many people - possibly a contributing factor in that I don't have many friends on this here Army base.  I spent way too many hours getting a simple car repair done today and there was a gal in the waiting room with a kid the same age as my oldest.  We nodded politely and corrected our respective children when they were acting up. 

We eventually had to start an actual conversation when her daughter kept asking me to read books to her.  Of course she was in the same situation as me, husband deployed, doesn't know anyone in Fort Bragg yada yada yada.  We decided to take a walk with the kids to pass the time after I had read the same 3 books 28,462 times.  While we were walking and chatting, we had to constantly remind the kids to stay with us, hurry up, stop, don't run, run, watch for cars, stay close by etc since we were walking along a busy road with no sidewalks (boo for Fayetteville and their anti-pedestrianism). 

Well my new pal took a slightly different approach and yelled at her kid to not run and get hit by a car "because you'll get killed and when Daddy comes home, he'll shoot me!". 

Seriously, this is what the woman is telling her kid, so she'll pay attention and walk with us.  Maybe I'm overprotective, but I would never mention anything about anyone shooting anything to a 3 year old!  I like to think I'm fairly moderate as a parent, not too harsh, if anything too lenient, so to hear stuff like that makes me insane.  How the heck am I supposed to explain that to my kids?  And then explain she was being dramatic?  Sarcastic?  Insane?  Well that pretty much made up my mind that I really don't need her as a friend.  Honestly, that's not the kind of thing I want my kids to hear.  I can assume that if that's what she says when she's trying to cross the street, it can only get worse ya know?

This scenario, right here, is why I don't make friends easily.  I made a judgement that this is not who I would want my kids around, and since they are always with me, hanging out with that chick again is a no go.

2 comments:

  1. Oh my, that was so wrong. I can't believe someone would say that to a child. Yikes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seriously! I fully respect different parenting styles, but talking about getting shot by your husband crosses way too many lines for me. I'm not that desperate for friends that I would let my kids hear crap like that.

    ReplyDelete