Last night, quite last minute, my aunt called to say that she was at Sam's club and they had a guy doing portraits so she signed us up. Uh, ok. Nothing like any notice. So Derick and I put on whatever we pulled out first (we have an appointment next week for Lily's formal birthday pictures), and we dressed Lily up nice and went over. The guy had a strange accent. I thought he sounded like Borat. After I said something, Derick and my aunt couldn't help snickering when he spoke.
The guy did a picture of us as a family, one of each of us with Lily, and then two with Lily by herself. The final picture he asked if she could stand. I explained that she can, but she doesn't do well with balance and she's pretty shaky still. I left it at that.
Next thing I know, he's trying to get her to stand so he can take her picture and she's wobbling all around. Derick freaked out and I was nervous and I was standing right next to her. He says, "Oh, I guess she can't stand. How about if we have her kneel?" In the meantime, he's getting all frustrated with her because she wanted to play with the flowers instead of using them for props. So he puts her on her knees, and she's wobbly at that too. So he looks at me and says, "She can't even sit on her knees?" Uh, what? What do you mean she can't even sit on her knees. "She was premature." I said and by this time I'd had enough. "Oh" he says, "how early was she?" I said almost 9 weeks to which he replied, "Well she doesn't look premature." That made me even more mad. I said something like, "Just because she looks like she's almost a year does not mean that developmentally she's a year because she's come a long way in this year and we're extremely fortunate to have her. Next time don't judge a person until you know the whole story. I'll wait for the card in the mail." and I stormed off with Lily and my aunt and Derick following behind me. They had no idea what had happened because they were standing out of earshot.
I am so angry. I want to tell that guy what I think of him. How dare you judge my child on her abilty to kneel or stand? She's beautiful and perfect and she's learning new things everday. Fuck you asshole. Fuck you for being so freakin ignorant. You have no idea what it's like to watch your child struggle. Fuck you and all the people like you. I have no place in my life for ignorance and neither does Lily. If you could spend one hour with her, I know that you would see how incredible she is.
Ahhh! I'm so angry I want to scream. When I told my dad, he had a look on his face like I've never seen from him before. He's extremely protective of Lily and that guy is lucky her Pop-Pop wasn't there! That's all I have to say : )
That's the first time it's been so close to my face before. Othertimes people will ask innocently or kids will say something innocently...but this guy, he wasn't innocent.
Would you have handled to situation differently?
I don't know how I would have handled it, because I've never been in that situation, but I think you did what you needed to do. That was right for you and that's all that matters. It's your right to protect and stand up for Lily and you did just that.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry he was so ignorant though. It's people like that that seem to set us back.
BTW, I got Lily's birthday invite and I so want to go- too cute!
yes, I would have smacked him!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you had a bad experience. The guy was rude and he should have apologized immediately. Anyone who works with the public needs to be sensitive and diplomatic. Just be glad you're not some schmuck who gets paid $7 an hour to wrangle fussy toddlers and deal with demanding brides-to-be.
ReplyDeleteI would complain to his supervisor.