mardi 1 août 2017
Mom of Kid With ADHD to Stranger in Walmart: "Mind Your Own F*cking Business"
"Oh, for Christ's sake give her a cookie so she'll shut up!"
That's what a complete stranger said to Taylor Myers, a mom in front of her in line at Walmart.
Up until that moment, Taylor had just been trying to do the right thing for her daughter Sophie with ADHD, whose "obsessive little heart" was stuck on a bag of chips Taylor had taken away from her after she called her a "butthole."
For several minutes, Taylor tried to ignore her.
"What's giving in to bad behavior going to do but reinforce the bad behavior?" she wrote on Facebook. "I've walked out of stores hundreds of times because of her. Almost every time, actually, I end up leaving with nothing I came for and a tantrum-having four-year-old attached to my hand and a baby on my hip, but this time I had to stick it out to get the groceries. I tell her for the tenth time to sit down so she doesn't fall."
That's when the woman behind her snapped.
"I could've responded in a nicer way," she wrote. "I could've explained to her that my four-year-old has pretty severe ADHD, I raise both my children alone, and I'm doing my best."
But this stranger didn't deserve the explanation: "Instead, I heard 'she's four years old and you need to mind your own f*cking business' come out of my mouth."
"I kept my composure until I finished what I was doing and walked to self check out so I could avoid facing anyone else as "that person". The person with the misbehaving child. The person who seems lazy because they're ignoring the behavior. The person who knows doing anything but ignoring it is only going to make it worse. By the time I made it to self check out, tears are pouring down my face. I've lost it. I'm angry, my feelings are hurt, I'm offended, and I'm just freakin' sad that I can't have one good experience in a store with my children."
Thankfully, a different stranger approached and proved how it's just as easy to be kind as it is to be cruel.
"As I scan my things, she asks Sophie questions to distract her, but backs me up when Sophie begins to go on about wanting the chips," Taylor said. "'No, you can't have those today. You have to be good for your mommy. She needs you to be good for her. I have a little girl just like you. How old are you? How old is brother?'"
For Taylor, it was a reminder that you never know the problems a child has that causes them to misbehave.
"Unless you know the struggle of being a parent to a child like mine, you cannot judge me," she wrote. "Thank you to the woman in Walmart today, for showing that kindness to my children. Thank you for walking us out. Thank you for backing me up. Mamas have to stick together."
Articles
0 comments:
Enregistrer un commentaire