Snapper. Age 6 1/2. So sweet, and cute, and friendly, and...precocious??? I think that describes her pretty well. She still has not learned that it is wise to keep her thoughts about other people to herself. My blogger buddy Jo-Lynne told of a funny thing her daughter said this week, and it brought to mind an incident we had with Snapper a few weeks ago. I am blogging this strictly so I can use it to embarrass Snapper (the best kind of embarrassment) when she's older. I hope one day she'll be at least a little ashamed if herself. Hee hee!
We went to a favorite pizza place a few weeks back. Whenever we eat there, Snapper enjoys eathing a bowl full of croutons, dunked in ranch dressing. This time she went to the salad bar by herself to get her treat. I saw her conversing with an elderly lady, and didn't think anything of it.
A while later, that same elderly lady--she must have been in her mid-late 80's--came over to our table. Here's how the conversation went.
Lady: Before I tell you what happened, I need you to promise me not to punish your daughter for what she said.
Me: (thinking) This. Is. NOT. Good!
Lady: You may be disturbed by it, but don't worry about it. Bless her heart, she's too funny.
Me: (sinking lower in my chair) What did she do? I'm already embarrassed...
Lady: Well, your little girl was in front of me in the salad bar line, and I noticed she had a bowl of croutons, and I commented to her that she must really like croutons. She said she did. Then I told her that it's funny she likes croutons, because I can't stand croutons. She looked at me with enormous eyes, put her hand on her hip and said, "Oh yeah? Well that's because you're just an OLD WOMAN!"
I'm sure her voice was full of sass, and I can just envision the all-too-familiar flip of the head...
Me: (thinking in desperation) Just shoot me now!
Lady: I'm sure you're mortified. But please don't punish her. Don't even say anything about it to her. She's adorable and I don't want her to feel bad. And she furnished me with the biggest laugh I've had in a long time.
Then she patted my arm and walked away, laughing all the while.
I wanted to cry. I didn't see anything adorable or funny about my smart-mouth 1st grader flapping her sass at a sweet, old lady. I was even more discouraged when I remembered that just a few weeks before, we'd had a firm discussion on respecting our elders.
I kept my promise to the lady and didn't say a word to Snapper about the incident. That, however, did not stop her daddy from talking to her about it! He was right there and heard the whole thing. And he never promised anything! LOL! Did the message sink in? I hope so...but I strongly doubt it. It's a little funny now. But only a little funny. At the moment, I could have died!
5 comments:
Ohmyword. LOL! LOL!!!
Well, she's observant and perceptive! I guess it's not all that bad that my little one's vocabulary is limited to dog and ma ma!! Thanks for visiting my site :)
this has me laughing so hard, Em!! I feel your pain. Rachel has just recently started announcing to people "you're a FAT lady!" and I keep telling her "you don't tell people that. She knows she's a big lady and doesn't need you to be rude and tell her she's fat. She just stares at me in utter confusion.
So my example to her was "do you like it when you're being naughty and Ethan says "you're a BAD girl" ?? and then she got it. :)
Oh my. Thank goodness she was so nice right? We need more people like her in the world. Ten bucks says Lady was just as sassy when she was young. I think you should take Snapper to volunteer at a retirement home just for a little perspective. Or you could do one of those Life progression pictures of her self in 60 yrs. Haha, or am I just crazy? Anyway, don't tell Snapper it made for a great blog post!
Thank the Lord she was a kind stranger! Oh, the lessons "they" have to learn the hard way! I love that we can cry and laugh about it at the same time.
Blessings to you!
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