Dear woman at the grocery store,
Yes, I see you acknowledging my child, sucking on a pink lollypop at 7am, watching Yo Gabba Gabba on her ipad. I see you trying not to give me the “Mommy judgmental eyes” but instead make it look like you are smiling at how cute her pajama bottoms are, one shoe, and sweater with chocolate on it. I know you aren’t referring back to your newly read Mommy manual that discusses appropriate behavior for children in public but assessing how poorly my performance would rank.
So I won’t respond to you. I won’t tell you my daughter took fifteen minutes to transition into the car because she was having sensory overload issues that made her bite my arm and kick my husband. I won’t tell you that the pink lollypop is being used to soothe her overstimulation and she spent four months learning how to pronounce the word pink so she got the one she wanted. I wont tell you her orthotics were rubbing her feet in the car so badly that she screamed and pulled them off herself or that this sweater is the only one she will wear this week – despite how late we stay up doing laundry. I also won’t inform you that this ipad is an educational tool that she has learned to navigate and will perhaps be her speaking device to communicate with the entire world. Without this ipad on her lap, she will probably try to rip off all of the labels off the shelves. After spending eight hours in school and therapy yesterday, she deserves a little time down time and shopping without her yelling, is like a trip to a day spa for me.
Instead, I will smile, say, “Excuse me” and grab the milk.
