Maternal rage...

Yesterday morning I took Henry to the library for storytime. Afterwards, Ms. Elizabeth brought out her box of puppets and the kids took turns trying them on. Henry loves putting on puppets and making the sounds of the various animals. He was showing this mom who was sitting next to him his rhino and she did not acknowledge his existence. He kept putting the puppet in her face and saying, "Rhino." and she ignored him while watching her son. This was not an issue of her not seeing him, she just did not feel it her duty to acknowledge any other child but her own and I wanted to slap her. I'm not sure if this was just my hormones or what, but it really really made me mad. Like so mad I almost got tears in my eyes and contemplated saying something nasty. Of course I did not, thank goodness.

Henry began playing with the stuffed "Big Red Dog" and this woman's son wanted it. Henry is pretty good about sharing but of course this child was not asking and tried to take it. Henry was not going to let that happen and so this little boy screamed his head off. I've heard tantrums before but this was over the top screaming. The mom told him that Henry was playing with the dog and that he would share when he was finished and this boy howled even louder. The mom had to pick her son up and hold him, while my son stood at this woman's feet trying to give the dog to her and she actually had to leave the library with her son. (Again ignoring mine--but this time I understood).

So maybe she wasn't a jerk --just an overwhelmed mom. But still....how hard is it to say, "Yeah, Rhino".