I took Jack and Nora to the park for lunch last Monday. It was a gorgeous day, so it was very crowded and we didn't get a turn on the swing until right before it was time to leave. As I pushed Jack, a man pushed his daughter in the swing next to us. This man was a bit deficient in the general hair area. OK, he was balding. "He doesn't have very much hair, Mommy," said Jack. I pretended not to hear him, but Jack is determined. "He doesn't have very much hair, Mom. Mom? Mom? Hey, Mom? He doesn't have very much hair. He doesn't have very much hair, Mom."
I mean, what do I do in that situation? Do I say, "Yes, Jack, you are correct"? What about, "Well, neither do you, anymore, my friend." Because the only thing that would end the loop of observation would be a vocal acknowledgement. And before you say anything, yes, I tried to distract him. It went like this:
"He doesn't have very much hair, Mom."
"Jack, do you want to watch a show when we get home?"
"Hey, Mom? He doesn't have very much hair."
Happily, the man seemed not to hear. Now whether that was because the wind was whipping away Jack's words or because he was graciously feigning deafness I couldn't say, because I certainly wasn't about to make eye contact.
Well today we went out for dinner and, lo, we were seated right by an elderly couple. And hey, look at that! The man didn't have very much hair! I might not have noticed that, myself, but fortunately I had someone handy to point it out to me.
Sigh.
3 comments:
Once we were at a Dunkin Donuts and Charlie just HAD to talk about the woman at the table next to us who had a short hair cut and ask me about "What is HE eating" and "Why does HE like coffee?" all the while gesturing at the poor woman. Time to go!
That kind of thing hasn't happened to me yet...of course now that I am writing this it will happen I am sure. It may help that all of Amelia's grandparents are overweight and one grandfather is very bald. Maybe it is all just normal to her? Oh, and both grandmothers have very short straight hair, like men! ;)
We started early on "We don't comment on what other people look like," and as a result --
Um, get back to me in ten years or so. Maybe it will have had some effect by then.
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