Sometimes the Irony Gets in My Eyes and Stings a Little
So there we were, on vacation, at the condo pool side and I’m spraying sunscreen on. SPF 50 in case you were wondering. A woman at the next table (a number of feet away) holds a blanket up to protect her baby and says that she is a first time mother. A woman with her, quite loudly, obviously meaning for me to hear, announces that THIS is why she doesn’t like spray on sunscreen. OK. Whatever. I mean, the stuff isn’t likely to blow over there and poison the kid but mothers are a paranoid bunch. I know I am.
Then that other woman LIGHTS A CIGARETTE AT THE TABLE WITH THE BABY.
‘Cause, you know, sunscreen is the kiss of death to babies but second hand smoke is A-OK.
Stumble it!
Donate to the Zoë and Lennox Simpson Memorial Fund
and the 529 college savings accounts get a kickback.
March 25th, 2008 15:31
Sometimes its just hard for people to LISTEN to the words that are coming out of their mouths. . . .good lord.
Hope the rest of the trip to FL was good.
March 25th, 2008 16:21
I love being a woman - never recall ever having penis envy. That being said, I’ve never found a more judgemental nor passive aggressive lot like the fairer sex. We are not all this way all of the time but it happens far too often for my taste. The woman in question was, albeit, a dumb-shit (for lack of better term) but still. We should be helping each other out rather than casting all-knowing glances and making underhanded comments. I’ve been a victim of this kind of “drive by” too many times in my life and this is probably why I stay away from play groups and the like. I can list a number of sins that would raise too many eyebrows - my twinlets still enjoy their bottles and chupon’s (pacifiers) at 15 months, they rarely wear shoes (because they don’t like them!), and their hair is often askew. And now, alas, I will have to add spray-on sunscreen to the list.
March 25th, 2008 16:42
I agree with Lara, women can be something else with their caddy comments. Saturday, while M and I were at lunch, I over heard a mom say to her college aged sons “Oh no, you were always very well behaved”. I know this was directed at me, since M is not a quiet child and does not sit well in a booster sit. I just thought to myself, “Yeah, right lady, and pigs fly.” Please what toddler sits quietly, without a movement or a peep when they are hungry?! But to top this off, when they were leaving she had the nerve to tell me how incredibly cute M was….. UGH…
March 25th, 2008 20:23
That is really quite hilarious.
March 25th, 2008 20:57
This kind of thing puts me in a BLIND RAGE.
March 25th, 2008 21:23
Yikes! That poor kid. Some people are just so ignorant. BTW your recent pics are super sweet! The twinkies really are double-cute
March 25th, 2008 22:15
Wow, I can’t believe that! I totally don’t understand smokers - GROSS!
March 26th, 2008 00:37
That is where I would be tempted to say something along the lines of “I wish a blanket could protect my child from second hand smoke” loudly enough for them to hear.
Idiots.
Hope you had a good holiday, those are some beautiful kids!
March 26th, 2008 02:12
Was her child not wearing sunscreen? I’ve seen melanoma at work and it really, really ain’t pretty. I don’t think we have the right to mess up those gorgeous (pale in my case) skins of our babies. Let ‘em do it themselves when they’re teenagers! And ditto, those clean-breathing lungs.
March 26th, 2008 13:27
Please tell you you said something… even if it was just “shut up”. ugh.
March 27th, 2008 13:06
I can’t manage more than a single pump from the spray on sunscreen but if *you* can, more power to you. Drive by parenting advice - or judgement - makes me crazy. I hope you didn’t offer the well-deserved comment on second-hand smoke because the Twinkies are always listening. (That’s what I tell myself about my daughter, anyway, to more or less success ;+)
March 28th, 2008 16:23
Niiiice. Very nice. Smokers seem to live in a world all their own, where somehow the smoke only stays in their own orbit and yet somehow doesn’t infiltrate their clothing.
Ah well. Hope you enjoyed the majority of your vacation!
March 29th, 2008 16:36
I’m confused…what was wrong with spraying suncream? It doesn’t go that far, and it’s not toxic or anything. The baby should have been wearing a really high factor in any case as babies and small children have extremely vulnerable skin (sorry; just finished the suncare module at work).
As to the cigarette…There are no words. Sunscreen or skin and lung cancer… you decide!