What I thought was going to be a peaceful drama free day has been anything but, and it’s only noon. This morning my grandpa called me wanting to know if I would ride to the grocery store with him. My grandma isn’t feeling too well, and he wanted to get her some chicken soup and ginger ale. I would have gone to the store for him if I had the truck, but since I’m vehicle-less I agreed to ride with him…with the baby in tow since I didn’t want to leave her with my sick grandma.
Ellie and I headed into the store while my grandpa sat in the car waiting for us. I don’t think he’s been in a grocery store in years as he always sits in the car while my aunt and grandma shop. I thought this would be a quick in and out, but it turned into anything but.
I grabbed the stuff my grandma needed then headed to the baby isle to grab a canister of Ellie’s favorite snacks. As we headed to checkout we had to pass through the pharmacy section where a mother and teenage daughter were standing, obviously arguing as the mother was flailing her arms around. She must have seen me coming down the isle with Ellie in the buggy because as we approached her she began pointing at us and telling her daughter “that’s why! Because I don’t want you to be a teenager mother like her!”
As I wasn’t exactly trying to eavesdrop on the conversation it took me a minute to realize what the woman had just said and that she was in fact talking about me. I immediately turned my buggy around and said “excuse me? Did you just refer to me as a teenager mother?” For an instant I was flattered that she thought I looked young enough to be a teenager, but that instant quickly passed as I began to feel offended.
The woman scowled at me and told me to mind my own business to which I replied I was minding my own business until she decided to blatantly speak about me in that way. She replied that she was sorry, and being a teen mother must be hard, but she was just trying to explain to her daughter exactly why she doesn’t agree with her getting birth control pills. The daughter was beside her saying “Mom, I am 18 years old. If I want the pill I will get the pill.”
Yet again the mother turned to her daughter and said “Why? So you can be like her?” I was extremely offended, and I probably turned every shade of steaming red as I informed her I was not a teenage mother, I am in fact a 28 year old married woman, and if I were a teenage mother she would have absolutely no right to judge me just as she was doing. A teenager who finds herself pregnant has enough to deal with without someone being so judgmental.
She replied that teen pregnancy is completely wrong, and I replied that she had no right to judge anyone, and she so obviously wrongly judged me. I felt like I was talking to my own mother as she used to act the same way when it came to teaching her daughters about sex. She would drill into our heads that she would not allow us to be on the pill because that would “make you have sex” as if taking a pill controlled your mind and body into doing the dirty deed. Anytime either one of us felt the slightest bit sick we were always accused of being pregnant. The flashback combined with this woman’s comments were enough to put me in a bad mood for awhile.
Ellie was beginning to get fussy from sitting in the buggy, and I was done with dealing with this mess. I turned to the daughter, gave her props her for doing the right thing and taking the steps to prevent an unwanted pregnancy if she does decide to have sex, and then I pushed the buggy on down to the end of the isle and towards the register. The mother must have been in a bit of shock because she waited until I made it to the register and began checking out before she marched to the end of the isle and yelled at me to “take back what you said to her right this minute!”
The girl checking me out ask if everything was okay, and I replied that I didn’t know the woman, and she must have activated her act like a child button this morning. As I paid for my groceries and pushed the buggy out the door the woman was still yelling and having a hissy fit. Talk about being an example for your daughter! She definitely succeeded in showing her daughter that a grown woman can still act like a child, and in thoroughly offending me, but I seriously doubt she succeeded in the birth control battle.
I definitely know what approach I won’t use when it’s time to have the sex talk with Ellie. I won’t make a fool out of myself in the middle of the grocery store!
