Thanks for all the supportive comments about my rant yesterday. After two phone conversations I had about this little adventure, I would like to address a couple things.
First, my mom gave me an incredibly hard time about the 'old' comments since she and dad aren't too far behind the age range I gave as an estimate. Let me just say: Mom, you are not 'OLD'! Not, like this. At some point it is not about age, but about attitude. Those people had very OLD attitudes and postures and obviously lifestyles. That is NOT you and dad, and hopefully never will be. This is also true of many, many people in my life and hopefully gives me a great example of how I want to mature. My uncle Bob, for example, at 70 he would have easily been mistaken for someone in his late 40's or early 50's. His attitude is young, his outlook is young and how he conducts himself is young. So, let me just say - when I was talking about how old this couple was, it was more about how they conducted themselves than a commentary about their actual age.
Second, I related the story to one of my best friends last night who was born and bred very southern. She laughed about it, but didn't think the woman was out of line, just because she was elderly. Her attitude was more about how we should teach our children to respect their elders and so this woman had a right to feel however she wanted and she could say what she wanted and therefore I really should teach my kids that. It wasn't a big thing, just a small difference in our motivation when the resulting conclusion for both of us was 'teach the children how to react'. We both got to the same place, but our attitudes about it were just slightly different. Funny, because many of you who commented were born and bred pretty Texan as well and no one else seemed to think I was being intolerant of the elderly.
No matter how naturalized of a Texan I have become in the last 30 years, there is still a difference in how I think about some things (have grown to love sweet tea, still hate grits!) and this was a startling reminder. Yes, I believe in respecting my elders and teaching my children to do so as well. But, some of my longtime friends take this to a level that doesn't make sense to me. I guess I see it differently, especially in a case like yesterday. Let me put it this way: I respect that you are 80 and have a right to believe and say what you want. I respect you as someone who has lived and learned and acquired wisdom and I will listen to what you say and take it to heart. However, just because you are 80 doesn't mean you have earned the right to be nasty and vicious and rude and no matter how old you are, I don't have to tolerate that. Because of your age, I will just walk away and not throw down with you, but I won't stand here and take it either. That's what I will teach my children, in a very subtle way of course. Wouldn't want to start giving them attitudes at an early age or anything.
So, regardless, I apologize if I offended you in any way, shape or form regarding my recounting of our episode yesterday or in my defense of my yankee attitudes.
Ahhhh - the roads we travel as parents - crazy, huh? Anyway - next post will be back to fun stuff about the kids, I promise. By the way - I just did some update thingy that is supposed to make my blog more readable on a mobile device so if you are checking me out on your smartphone, please let me know how that looks!
Thanks!
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