Bite that tongue, before I unleash my fury.... (warning, rants to follow)

If you do not have something nice to day, don't say anything at all!!

Unless I am doing something illegal or horribly wrong to my child in public, then MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. You can think whatever you want. And trust me, not one person in this whole nation is innocent of thinking something negative about a parent out in public. "Why won't they stop their kid from kicking my seat." "Why did they cave on that tantrum, I would... instead" Whatever. And sometimes it is justified, because no parent is perfect, and there are bad parents out there. BUT keep those thoughts to yourself because you have NO IDEA what is going on. I repeat, NO IDEA as in NO CLUE.

Yesterday I had to rush to the post office at the worst possible time. Logan had been awake from his nap only briefly, and no one had eaten snacks yet either. Plus, we were rushing. Then the "polite" woman in line behind us began a one-sided dialogue in a cutesy baby voice with Logan, "Oh, my aren't you such a big boy. You are too old for that binky. I can't believe it. I don't know why your mommy lets you have that when you are so big. I don't think you need a binky, now do you? Big boys don't do baby things like that. You need to tell your mommy that you are so big you don't need it." Okay, nice lady behind us just became passive agressive lady who I want to hit upside the head. Logan who has no idea what she is talking about really, or even if she is talking to him stares around the post office like he could care less.

She didn't know, and I didn't have to justify that "Well, he wouldn't have a binky except that he had some awful GI problems that have kept him binky dependent and mostly drinking milk (not real milk) until he was two years old. And now he is two and half. And we don't usually take the binkies into public; however, today he just woke up from nap, hasn't had snack, and I have to get this application mailed within the next 20 min. AND lucky for you, you weren't here 5 minutes ago when I put the binkies away and Logan screamed for what probably seemed like hours to everyone in line." Then I would offer that she could hold him while screaming for the next 20 minutes while I stood quietly in line and got my package mail, or she could choose to mind her own business and enjoy the quietness of the post office.

I considered my options in handling this rudeness from someone who doesn't know how to mind their own stinking business:

1. Turn around, scream nasty things at her, and hope she learns her lesson.
2. Ignore her
3. Be nice and explain briefly and politely
4. Play her game.

I chose number 4. I matched the passive agressiveness and told Logan that maybe he should tell her that he has binkies at two years old because he had painful stomach problems for the first two years of his life, so his mom does let him still keep his binky until he is all better and a little bigger."

Needless to say, she was somewhat surprised when my "conversation" with Logan took that route.

But, at least I got my application mailed. And when we got home and had snack the binkies went back to bed while Logan had playtime, just in case anyone is still busy binky bashing.