Dear Asshole Barista Who Humiliated My Sweet Boy,
Thank you. Thank you for affording me the opportunity to teach my son a few life lessons. That you for allowing me to teach him by example that we don’t need to attend every argument we are invited to. Thank you for allowing me to teach him that some people are just assholes and that’s okay. We don’t have to engage. A complete stranger should know better and keep their opinion to themselves sometimes, but if they don’t, it shouldn’t matter to us.
What you somehow failed to realize when my 10-year-old boy was placing his very first frappucino order on his own is that this is something that is extremely uncomfortable for him. He is painfully shy. Actually, shy would be an understatement. His avoidance of eye contact and obvious ability to remain still while placing his order with a perfect stranger is something I have never expected others to understand, or even know how to deal with. However, I would certainly expect any person that is representing a company in a customer service capacity to use some sense and see that this child may be struggling and feeling uncomfortable.
To make matters worse, when you pointed out his bouncing to him, he began blinking, gulping, and flicking his fingers. Evidently, this amused you. Hence, the laughing. Not laughing with my son, but rather at my son. As his mother, I would like to officially say how fucking dare you? How fucking dare you make my child uncomfortable and then have the audacity to laugh at him? How dare you shatter my sweet boys’ confidence? How dare you bring all of my deepest fears to the surface by laughing at my little boy? Just…..how fucking dare you?!?
Fortunately, I was caught completely off guard and rendered speechless for just long enough to see my boy silently wishing that the ground would open up and swallow him whole so he could escape the situation. So he could escape you. Lucky for you (and me) my maternal instincts kicked in before my rage could and I had the presence of mind to get my boy out of there before I could lunge across the counter and strangle you with your own apron.
But really, thank you. My son and I had a long and overdue talk as a result of your behavior. We talked about how the opinions of strangers don’t matter. We talked about how almost no one would ever even notice what my son now knows are tics, let alone laugh at him about it. We agreed that most people are kind and respectful. We said that most people would never go out of their way to intentionally hurt another person’s feelings, especially a child. We wrapped up this talk with my son saying that he doesn’t care what some “idiot” who doesn’t even know him thinks anyway. So that you for teaching me and my son a very valuable lesson.
Sincerely,
Proud Mama Of The “Weird” Kid
Megan is a stay at home mom taking motherhood one day (read: glass of wine) at a time. When she isn’t busy embarrassing her teenaged twins with her mere presence, she can be found obsessing over her 10-year-old son or talking to her dogs and cats while her husband answers on their behalf, voices and all. She can be found on her Instagram, on Facebook, or on Twitter. Her writing can be found on Twiniversity here and on Sammiches and Psych Meds here.
