Showdown at the flagpole

I wouldn't necessarily say I pride myself on many things, but I guess maybe two things would be: One, I don't make scenes in public, and two, I never let Ewan run wild, especially in public.

Those two things were put to the test today on a short trip to Walgreens. I stopped for some cough syrup, as I've already been through a bottle in a week, and I was browsing around cosmetics. My dialogue with Ewan was pretty one-sided. "Ewan, don't touch that. Put that back on the shelf. Stop climbing. Stop pulling on me. Pick that up and put it back." And on and on. At one point, he started to step onto the low floor shelf with one foot. I was already telling him to get down, but before his second foot was even a quarter-inch off the ground, a Walgreens clerk came running over. "Ma'am! Ma'am! He can't do that. He can't climb that!" After staring at her for a second, my arm frozen in Ewan's direction in pointing position (having been interrupted in the middle of actually parenting him) I said to her, oh, so calmly, "Yes, I know, I'm telling him right now." I then turned around to Ewan and continued what I had already started. He, being three years old and a boy, heard me, but just wasn't moving to accommodate me very quickly. She kept badgering me, "He needs to get down right now, he is pulling on that, he can't do that!" I couldn't step away at that moment, because Fynn was in the cart, and the seat belt was broken, and his favorite thing to do is stand up and try to dive to the ground. I again said to her, "I am handling it, I already told him before you came over." And STILL that woman was yelling at me! She started spouting something about it being for my protection, which is totally hilarious to me, because she doesn't care about me or my child. And I understand she has a job to do, but she doesn't need to do mine. Had I been letting him act up and ignoring his antics, sure, she could say something. But I was clearly being an active parent and taking care of the situation. After more of her fussing, which had begun to sound like the adults in Charlie Brown's life, "WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH!" I lost all concern about Ewan and turned to her and said, "I am that child's mother, I don't need you to tell me how to handle him!" This whole exchange was quite loud, and pretty embarrassing. Finally Ewan came down, and then the lady who had been browsing nearby came over and said, "I know exactly how you feel." Nice to have an ally.

I just had to vent.