Temper, Temper
I've been pretty busy at work this week. At our staff meeting on Monday morning, my boss advised me and Lexus that we were the only people in the office not to have requested next Monday (July 3rd) off. Consequently, he offered us a deal. Make up the time we will miss by not working on Monday, anytime this week or next, and they'll just close the office.
Consequently, I've been working through lunch and staying a little late. It's done wonders towards getting me caught up. Oddly, though, as I catch something up, someone is right behind me with another pile. Didn't see THAT one coming, did you?
Anyway, I'm up to my hiney in shop drawings right now. Shop drawings that will probably be the focus of most of my day tomorrow. If you are not familiar (and if you don't work in the industry you'd have no reason to be), they are basically submittals that contractors send to the architect on a job for each item and the architect makes sure that the item conforms to the plans and design he had laid out originally. There are certain codes that have to be met and color selections to be made, etc., etc., etc. It's a tedious task to go through all of this stuff. But, it's part of the deal.
Anyway, because of the boredom that sets in when I'm in serious shop drawing slog, I have no problem when something new comes along. Today, the selections have been typing a quick letter for one of the guys, filling out some forms for a new client, writing snarky email to a contractor, a few things like that. When one of my bosses asked me to deliver a copy of a legal agreement that I had finished typing this morning (early) to an office a couple blocks from here, given the sunny weather, I was all over it. Well, I bemoaned the shop drawings being delayed, yet again, for something else. But, inside I giggled and giggled.
While en route, I was enjoying watching the cars and people in the area. When I got to the second corner and was waiting for traffic to ebb a little before crossing the street, a youngish black girl (I'm going to guess 22, maybe 24) walked up talking on a cellphone and pushing an umbrella stroller with a tiny baby in it. I couldn't see the baby well because she'd put a lightweight (receiving) blanket over the baby's head. (I'd imagine it was to keep the sun off the baby as much as possible.) The baby was very unhappy and was squalling pretty loudly.
The baby was very tiny and if I were to guess an age (though my perception has become quite skewed since my last teeny tiny girl), I'd say that he/she was maybe 6 months old, at the most. As we were waiting there together for the traffic light to change, I was watching the cars. She was obviously engrossed in a conversation and...well...the baby wasn't in a position to be very converational either.
All of a sudden, she snatched the blanket off the baby's head and got right in his/her face and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT? HUH? I MEAN IT. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?" The light had just changed and I was already walking across the street. At first, I thought maybe she was talking to me. I didn't know why she'd say that to me, but I certainly couldn't imagine why she'd talk that way to a baby. So, it had to be me, right? But when I turned around, she had the blanket in one hand and was bent over just berating this infant for interrupting her call and annoying her with the squalling.
::sigh::
I've said this elsewhere before. I can understand what will get you to that point. I can understand how parents can get so fed up that they want to hurt their children. I can. I don't condone it. Not by any means. But I understand it. That said, get some help. Get some happy pills. Get some counselling. Get some help that allows you a break when you need it. Get something or someone that will keep you from doing this to your innocent child. And get it quickly.
When you aren't getting much sleep, and you are dealing with the stress of a baby who cries alot ([Kid 2] had colic and was a handful), and life hands you any of the many other selections of problems it can, you can only take so much. And when you are ready to blow, you will blow all over the closest person who will let you. Your own immaturity is only going to further complicate things. And when you are emotional you don't always stop to think about how your actions are going to affect someone else. Especially someone else who can't fight back.
I sincerely doubt that the girl expected her tiny baby to respond to her Vic Mackey interrogation style, but it didn't stop her from trying it. And it sure ruined my shop drawing vacation.
Consequently, I've been working through lunch and staying a little late. It's done wonders towards getting me caught up. Oddly, though, as I catch something up, someone is right behind me with another pile. Didn't see THAT one coming, did you?
Anyway, I'm up to my hiney in shop drawings right now. Shop drawings that will probably be the focus of most of my day tomorrow. If you are not familiar (and if you don't work in the industry you'd have no reason to be), they are basically submittals that contractors send to the architect on a job for each item and the architect makes sure that the item conforms to the plans and design he had laid out originally. There are certain codes that have to be met and color selections to be made, etc., etc., etc. It's a tedious task to go through all of this stuff. But, it's part of the deal.
Anyway, because of the boredom that sets in when I'm in serious shop drawing slog, I have no problem when something new comes along. Today, the selections have been typing a quick letter for one of the guys, filling out some forms for a new client, writing snarky email to a contractor, a few things like that. When one of my bosses asked me to deliver a copy of a legal agreement that I had finished typing this morning (early) to an office a couple blocks from here, given the sunny weather, I was all over it. Well, I bemoaned the shop drawings being delayed, yet again, for something else. But, inside I giggled and giggled.
While en route, I was enjoying watching the cars and people in the area. When I got to the second corner and was waiting for traffic to ebb a little before crossing the street, a youngish black girl (I'm going to guess 22, maybe 24) walked up talking on a cellphone and pushing an umbrella stroller with a tiny baby in it. I couldn't see the baby well because she'd put a lightweight (receiving) blanket over the baby's head. (I'd imagine it was to keep the sun off the baby as much as possible.) The baby was very unhappy and was squalling pretty loudly.
The baby was very tiny and if I were to guess an age (though my perception has become quite skewed since my last teeny tiny girl), I'd say that he/she was maybe 6 months old, at the most. As we were waiting there together for the traffic light to change, I was watching the cars. She was obviously engrossed in a conversation and...well...the baby wasn't in a position to be very converational either.
All of a sudden, she snatched the blanket off the baby's head and got right in his/her face and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT? HUH? I MEAN IT. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?" The light had just changed and I was already walking across the street. At first, I thought maybe she was talking to me. I didn't know why she'd say that to me, but I certainly couldn't imagine why she'd talk that way to a baby. So, it had to be me, right? But when I turned around, she had the blanket in one hand and was bent over just berating this infant for interrupting her call and annoying her with the squalling.
::sigh::
I've said this elsewhere before. I can understand what will get you to that point. I can understand how parents can get so fed up that they want to hurt their children. I can. I don't condone it. Not by any means. But I understand it. That said, get some help. Get some happy pills. Get some counselling. Get some help that allows you a break when you need it. Get something or someone that will keep you from doing this to your innocent child. And get it quickly.
When you aren't getting much sleep, and you are dealing with the stress of a baby who cries alot ([Kid 2] had colic and was a handful), and life hands you any of the many other selections of problems it can, you can only take so much. And when you are ready to blow, you will blow all over the closest person who will let you. Your own immaturity is only going to further complicate things. And when you are emotional you don't always stop to think about how your actions are going to affect someone else. Especially someone else who can't fight back.
I sincerely doubt that the girl expected her tiny baby to respond to her Vic Mackey interrogation style, but it didn't stop her from trying it. And it sure ruined my shop drawing vacation.
posted by SuperWife | 5:48 PM
3 Comments:
Hopefully one day, you will need a license to have children.
Some people shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a baby.
There have been a few reports down under lately of baby shaking and some dickhead actually but his kid in the clothes dryer because he have spilt orange juice on his clothes.
Needless to say, these men are now in jail.
There was a story in the comic Common Grounds about these giant Marvel-like monsters talking about reports like the one YGF mentioned with one of the monsters saying "Y'know, I've proudly called myself a monster for forty years now...but I'm starting to think I don't even know what the word really means."
I know how the girl feels, but you never take it out on a baby. Hopefully, we won't see the baby in the paper later on. Sorry your mini vacation got ruined. But relay the message to your daughters and then tell them they should be thankful they got you. :big cheeser grin: After all, it never pays to skip a chance to remind them.
Post a Comment
<< Home