Big One had a birthday party to attend tonight. Being the organized mom that I am (ha!), I spaced off the party until this morning. Hey, at least I remembered today and not tomorrow morning! That meant we had to make a quick trip to Toys R Us for a gift.
Today is also my dad's birthday (happy birthday, Dad!) so he was on his way to our house. I told him we would be home by noon. I knew we would probably not be home by noon. But I thought if I told him that I may actually make it. Again I say ha!
Big One was warned that it would be a quick trip. But he's 3. And 3 doesn't understand "quick" especially when we're talking about a trip to the toy store. I quickly lost patience and started snapping at him, trying to hurry him along.
Out of nowhere, like a stealth ninja, we were attacked with sugary kindness of a friendly Toys R Us employee.
"What are you looking for, little buddy?"
As if to break up our little mommy-son feud, he poured on the sugar. What the heck? When I want a helpful employee, there's none to be found. But on a crabby day when I just want to be left alone, Mr. Employee of the Month with his bright smile and perky personality is lurking. I don't even think he was actually working. I think he planted himself, pretending to stock a shelf, waiting to pounce on some poor mom who was having a rough day. Or has a 3 year old.
He led us to the Cars toy section. And then he hung around, pointing out all of the different Cars toys to Big One. As if we don't know about every. single. Cars. toy. ever. Ever. There was a strange tension between myself and Mr. Happy Go Lucky Toys R Us Employee. I felt him judging me. (Or was it me judging me?) I willed him to leave the aisle so I could sulk in my "bad mommyness". He finally left us alone.
I suppose there is a slight chance that he was just a genuinely nice person who truly wanted to help. He may have even been judging my crankiness. Perhaps the tension was all in my head.
The thing about my impatient snapping is I know I'm doing it. And I don't want to do it. But I do it anyway. And then some happy, perky, childless person comes along trying to help out. And then I feel even worse about my snapping.
So, friendly Toys R Us guy, thank you for leading us to the Cars toys (even though we already knew where they were). Thank you for rubbing in the fact that I was impatient and snappy (even though you didn't actually say the words or even shoot me a look.... your over the top kindness was criticism enough). Thank you for ruining a perfectly mediocre trip to the toy store with my 2 young children. I'll remember this trip when I actually need some assistance and the only thing I will find are grinchy trolls donning Toys R Us uniforms.
5 comments:
You go, Girl! I have had these trips as well! I think you should print out business cards with just your blog addy on it, and then you could have handed it to the "happy helperton" and he could go and read about himself. Just a thought! :-)
Of course on the day you don't need any help, there's someone and a perky someone. Go figure. That's Murphy's Law.
They DO pop out of nowhere! It happens to us too. Don't they realize kids have that store memorized? No help, thankyouverymuch. I have all the help I need with my two whining boys.
Amen, sister!
I work for Toys R US and babies R us (its a super store). Why are you all so angry we are doing our job. We go over to the kids that are whinning and fighting with moms b/c obviously you all need help.
For ex yesterday while the mom pulled her screaming son away from the toy I had to go over there to take the toy to help her out. So relax were just doing our job
Why you don't get help when you need it is probably b/c you look like you dont need it(if that makes any sense)
@Ms_triniamerican... I apologize for the confusion. You see, I was actually making fun of myself/feeling bad about the fact that I wasn't patient with my son. I have a tendency to go over the top with my sarcasm/making fun of myself/trying to be funny. I honestly had no ill will toward the man at Toys R Us that day. It was more that I felt like a bad mom because I was being so snappy and then he (the employee) was being so nice and it made me feel worse. I'm not sure if you're a mom or not, but I think most of my regular reader moms realized I wasn't actually trying to bash Toys R Us, but rather admit my "bad mommyness" as I mentioned in the post. Thanks for sharing your perspective though!
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