Crotchety Old People

Out at dinner tonight, as Kate sat in her high chair babbling away, I noticed an old lady sitting in the booth behind Jim continually craining her neck to see what was going on at our table.

Kate "da-da-da"ed off and on again, just being her cute baby self and making others around us smile, while Jim and I finished up our meals.

Through my last few bites, I kept noticing the old lady shifting her head and looking in our direction as if something was wrong.

I said to Jim, "I think Kate is bothering those people behind you."

"No . ." he scoffed. "She's not crying. She's just talking. She's not bothering anyone." And true, the restaurant WAS very noisy. I doubted many people could even hear Kate's baby sounds, so how could it really bother anyone? Who doesn't like to hear a baby cooing? Even if they don't like it -- who is bothered by that kind of sound?

A few more minutes went by, Kate gave a couple of long growly-type noises, and we laughed at her. Our waitress brought the check, and Jim and I began to pack up and put Kate in her car seat. STILL, the lady was looking at us.

This old lady -- and I don't say that in an affectionate, "cute little old lady" way -- looked mad. Her furrowed brow gave little room for question -- Kate was clearly annoying her.

Jim went on to get the car from the valet, and I buckled Kate into her seat. The waitress came over and said her good-byes to the baby. I threw her car seat over my forearm and smiled at the old lady and her husband as I turned toward their table.

"We'll get her out of here . . . I know she's being kinda noisy," I said very jokingly. With my cutest smile and proud mother posture, I turned Kate's car seat toward them so they could admire our little bundle.

"We appreciate that. Thank you. We appreciate that very much," the old lady said. NOT jokingly. NO comments about the baby. A very firm, get-the-hell-outta-here-would-ya? type of response.

I couldn't believe it. I just nodded and turned to leave, with what I'm sure was an F-U type of look on my face.

What the hell had just happened?

Our waitress quickly ran me down.

"WHAT did that lady say to you?" she asked. I explained to her the transaction that had just occurred . . . still a bit shocked. The waitress was just as shocked as I was and told me that I had nothing to worry about -- Kate was just being a baby.

I have never had someone be so rude to me about having one of our children out in public. It was 7:15pm . . . not even late or at an hour when children were considered to be inappropriate. It was a very family oriented restaurant, filled to the gills with kids and their parents. And Kate was not anywhere close to crying . . . she was playing with a toy, jabbering, and being (what Jim and I thought) an excellent dinner companion. I could not believe that some crotchety old woman had the nerve to thank me for leaving with my 'noisy' baby.

After leaving the restaurant lobby, I found Jim outside waiting for our car. Of course I immediately started telling him the story -- including the fact that the waitress had chased me down to hear what had happened. He was in shock, too.

"What's with the crotchety old people?" Jim asked.

Good question. I hope that crotchety old lady crawls into her crotchety old sheets tonight and thinks for just a minute about how rude she was to our family. I hope she thinks back to her time as a new mom, taking a little one out in public. I hope she feels bad for being so ugly to us. Then I hope she falls into a crotchety sleep and has herself one crotchety old dream. Bah humbug, old lady.

I just hope I don't grow up to be old and crotchety some day.