sight isn’t always necessary

UGH.  It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, isn’t it always SOOOO annoying?  Unsolicited help from strangers when you’re in need – that’s a different thing.  But today when I was out in Ann Arbor with Connor and Elly, we were confronted by a crazy woman in the street.  And she had some very important information to give us… whether we wanted it or not.

We went to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum today.  It was fun, Connor had a blast, Elly slept a lot, and when we finished, we were hungry.  We parked in the Ann Street parking structure, which is about two blocks away from the museum.  About two blocks down from the parking structure is a Quizno’s, and Connor said he wanted a sandwich.  Elly was all wrapped up in the Mei Tai sling, so rather than taking her out of it to get her all snuggly in the car seat, we just headed out the door of the museum as is, ready to take on the brisk four block walk.  Connor wasn’t cold when we walked out; I asked him to zip up and he refused because he was too hot.  It wasn’t warm today, just 42 degrees, but it smelled fresh and springy and we were happy.

After block two, I was beginning to feel a little guilty about not wrapping Elly up.  Her face was exposed to the air, and when the wind blew, she was wiggling uncomfortably.  I still didn’t think she was cold all over, because my body heat was warming her up, but the cold air on her face was obviously bugging her.  I buttoned my sweater over her (I wasn’t even wearing a coat, because I thought it was nice outside), and I covered her face with my hood.  We kept moving on, Connor bouncing at my side, obviously not in the least affected by the weather.  When we got to the corner of Main and Huron (a block away from our destination), a crazy woman basically ran up to me on the sidewalk.

“I can’t believe you don’t have your baby covered!  I need to tell you something, this is just not the right kind of weather to have your baby exposed like that, and you really need to have a hood on her when you’re outside.  It’s just so dangerous and awful, where is her hat!  What are you doing!?  Blah blah blah…”

This is where I cut her off.

“Um, I know you think you have something you need to tell me, but I don’t need to hear it.  I can raise my children just fine, thank you, and she’s plenty warm being right up next to me, and I’m a nurse so I know exactly how warm she needs to be.  Thanks.”

It took a lot to not let a barrage of profanity flow from my mouth, but I had Connor with me and I didn’t want to scare him.  As we were walking away, she yelled out something like, “If you’re a nurse, you should know of all the research that says…” and then she trailed off.  I wasn’t letting her waste any more of my time.  PLUS, if she actually was right and I needed to get my child to a warmer place (or put a hat on her or something), why on Earth was she making me stand still in the middle of the sidewalk so that she could lecture me?

And who the fuck was she to tell me what to do or not to do with my children?  Oh I was so irritated.  SO fucking irritated.