Respect

A couple of Saturday's ago while Liam was having his mid afternoon snooze and Richard was doing the gardening, I took myself out to the local shopping centre to run a few errands.  I do this quite often, but its also a good opportunity to have some me time and indulge in some people watching.  My favourite thing :)

I was walking through Best and Less, when I heard the conversation. 

'Mum, when are we going home?' said the young girl, probably who I guessed was about 6 or so.

'Soon' said a tired and stressed mum.

'Can we please go home soon?  I want to go home' she said again.

'Oh jesus.  Seriously, stop being a dickhead, go on, move.  F*** me.' said the mum.

I turned around and looked at them.  The mum was a bit older than me, very well dressed and presented and her daughter looked so sad.  The woman caught my eye and shrugged her shoulders.

I shot her quite a dirty look.  Tell me, what did you achieve by speaking to your daugther like that? 

In another shop I saw an elderly lady with her daughter, who would have been my mum's age. 

'Mum, seriously, stop friggen dawdling.  You are being such a pain in the arse today' said the daughter.

Again, another crestfallen look from an elderly mum.

I got home and told Richard about my shopping trip.  It really angers me that people speak to their family members like this.  Where is the respect gone?  I understand I have only caught a snippet of conversation and there are probably one million and three things going on in their lives that I don't know about, but I would never speak to my mother, friend, child or husband like that.  Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

I took Liam through Ikea yesterday and as a near three year old, Liam will ask a million questions.  Sometimes its the same question, 50 times over.  But I try my very best to answer it.  I get a lot of funny looks from people with the conversations we have, but I have been stopped before by a random shopper to tell me my son is funny, or they have overheard our conversation and are impressed by how patient I am.  Some days I am not, but I try.

My point is?  Let's try to respect each other a bit more, for all our faults.  And take a deep breath when it all feels like its going to topple over.

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