DISQUS

velocibadgergirl · 5 months ago

Good for you for saying something to that hateful old bag. I always get flustered and can't think of anything to say!

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

Me too! This was one of the few times in which I KNEW for a fact that I was right, and I had good reason to keep her from yelling at anyone else.

cagey333 · 5 months ago

Well, your tagline does saying "wiping" and not "kicking". Whew! I expect we do not need to tread lightly around you at BlogHer, right?

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

I am very nice in person. Usually. ;)

Amanda · 5 months ago

Ha! I usually just stand there with my mouth open, not believing what just happened and then think of a million things I could have said later. But for the record, grabbing her ankle and pulling her in would have been priceless!

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

The resulting lawsuit, though? Not so funny. ;)

amanda · 5 months ago

lol. something similar happened to me at the downtown library recently. two elderly women were standing in the doorway between the garage and the entry to the escalator to get inside. they were blocking the way, so i politely (truly!) said 'excuse me.' they didn't budge, so repeatedly myself a little louder. one of them starting yammering about how all they were doing was standing there and not bothering anyone and why was i so rude...
what? i told her that i simply said 'excuse me' because she was blocking the door. she continued to babble. so i sort of said (to an elderly woman)

"i guess i should have told you to get the hell out of my way instead."

totally not my fault, right? :)

blessedwithpreemies · 5 months ago

I had a similar altercation a few weeks ago. We were at a fountain park where the water is about six inches deep. This woman was there with her two boys that kept running right next to everyone and splashing water right in their faces. Then the older brat proceeded to look right at my four year old and splash him in the face. ON. PURPOSE!! OH NO YOU DIDN'T. I informed him that Logan did not want to be splashed in the face. I could feel the mother glaring at me. Later on, the brat ran right next to me and got water all over me. I moved my hand as if to splash him back, but decided against it. The mother then laid into us, telling us if we didn't want to get wet, maybe we should move away.

Margie · 5 months ago

Hee hee...I once told an old lady in a similar situation, (at a kid's baseball game) to "bite me"... so I think you were more than polite. Am I going to hell for telling an old lady to "bite me?"

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

I would love to have seen the look on her face!

Gertie · 5 months ago

Maybe her panties were too tight. I mean Grandmas wear those panties that go up way high and completely cover the bottom, so I could see how if they were too tight, it would make you a grouch. And what can you do if you are sitting at the Y with too tight panties? NOTHING.

Nothing except grouch at unsuspecting swimmers.

Stphndkdss · 5 months ago

It's really good to know that I'm not the only one. My BFF and I are constantly being stalked by people who desire to bring out the worst in us. Our most reliable tool of defense a winning smile, a sweet sweet voice and extreme sarcasm. We look at it like this there are way worse crimes we could committ than killing someone with insincere kindness.

adebenedetto · 5 months ago

Oh dear Lindsay,

Kudos for keeping your cool. I cannot say that I would've behaved as well as you did. I too, attract THOSE kinds of people.

bellamomma · 5 months ago

God help her poor grandchild who surely had to hear an earful on the way home. And his mother who undoubtably had to listen to a diatribe from her mother on how she'll never take the grandchild to swimming lessons again because that rude evil woman drove her blood pressure through the roof.

;)

Not that I have one of those grandma's or anything. I've never heard those "I was WRONGED!" recaps LOL

(You gotta start leaving that "Be an asshole to me" sign at home!)

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

She was totally yelling at her grandkid in the water, too. The woman has ISSUES.

Stefany @ To.Be.Thode · 5 months ago

That'll teach her to mind her own business!

KristiStevens · 5 months ago

Oh, I am LMAO. I had this soccer mom (opposing team) say something snippy to me a couple of weeks ago and before I could open my mouth to respond my friend says, "Lady, you better watch it. This one here (as she gestures her head to me) will write about you on the Internet and people you've never even met will make fun of you." The soccer mom didn't know what to say about that and retreated quite quickly. I think you handled the bitcy grandma great. Go you girl! K

Chris · 5 months ago

It's not just you - that same kind of crap happens to me. I'll say "excuse me" in a perfectly polite tone, so I can go past someone who's blocking an aisle at the grocery, and somehow that is massively offensive. I'm not the one making a career out of picking out a can of beans here, lady........

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

Oooh, that reminds me of something I can't stand- people who don't say "excuse me," when they need to get by, but instead stand, staring until you move. Like you're supposed to psychically divine their intent or something. Grrr.

Chris · 5 months ago

OMG, my husband is one of those who won't say excuse me! He just stands there. I'll whisper, "say excuse me," like he's a 5 year old, and still.......he stands..........waiting. You can imagine my excitment that today is grocery day, and he insists on going. Can't wait.........

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

Ha ha. I think it's a passive-aggressive move. ;)

janross · 5 months ago

I had a very similar altercation the other day myself. I was doing exactly the same thing as you - practicing swimming with my 3 year old grandson in a large indoor pool where there were swim lessons going on, open swim and some seniors doing water aerobics. Not a CLASS of water aerobics, just some exercising. My grandson jumped off the side and apparently made a HUGE splash with his tiny body and an older woman glared at me. "Can you at least stay on the other side of the pool? We are trying to keep our hair dry"! Um. Then maybe you should stay OUT OF THE POOL? I was nice and moved but I would love to say something to her.

Hatta · 5 months ago

I was at a mom and me swim class with my littlist and we were letting them float and my daughter was kicking with her feet. She splashed one of the other moms and she was such a drama queen saying "uh get that splasher away from us." Hello Lady your in a pool with a bunch of TODDLERS you are so going to get wet! From then on over the next six weeks she called my daughter the splasher and I smiled and let her splash away.

laels_mom · 5 months ago

That story was AWESOME! I would not have been able to bite my tounge either!

María | Blissed · 5 months ago

It's the truth! It happens to me too! And you are probably one of the sweetest people in existence - it's all them. Me, on the other hand...that can be debated. I applaud for saying what needed to be said.

I get to see you in a few days. I'm super excited. :)

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

Ha! I can only imagine what you would have said!

titus · 5 months ago

See, I am just too evil to let people like that slide...I get all clammy and heart pounding when someone is rude and mean around me, then I cannot help myself, though I am scared to death, the inner monster comes out. LOL

I would have given that lady more words than that- seriously...Man, I am just a bad person, I guess, but would not have even hesitated. ::shakes head::

Nancy at FearandParentinginLV · 5 months ago

Good for you for standing up for yourself. I'd like to think I would have done the same, but who knows.

kandis · 5 months ago

its fun to stay at the y.m.c.a!
not to freak you out, but i think i just fell in love with you. i mean that in a totally heterosexual way.
in those situations (yes they happen to me as well) i either don't say enough right then or say something a little too harsh... i think you did great!

Kate Buckholz Berrio · 5 months ago

I recently almost got into a fist fight in the pediatrician's office with a woman who had her 6 year old in the well baby section where I was with my 3 month old... (what is WITH people???) I think it's a mama bear instinct to react but also our responsibility to show our kids that you should say something if you know you're right and stand up for yourself in a polite but forceful way. Good job mama!!!

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

Oooh, I'm a total germ FREAK at the doctor's office. I have too many bad memories of going to my pediatrician as a kid, only to catch something else while I was there and be sick another week! My kids both know they're not allowed to touch anything in there, even though all the other green-snot-nosed kids are playing up a storm. Yes, I am THAT MOM. :D

Jenny · 5 months ago

That is hilarious. Good for you, I probably would have just glared at her the rest of the day ;) You should have yanked her in the pool.

Tami · 5 months ago

Right there with ya. I have confrontations on a regular basis, and with God as my witness, I am not looking for trouble. My latest example: I was in the back of MY van in MY garage cleaning the vehicle up from our vacation. My next door neighbor hollered at me and asked where we'd just been. When I told her, she yelled, "Well, thanks for telling ME! WooWee!" Followed by her walking back into her home and slamming the door. Because, you know, I guess I missed the memo on the rule about reporting vacations to a neighbor. Particularly when she is a crochety old bag who rarely speaks. Now, I don't look for trouble, and I don't start it, but I'll end it. Which I did. :) Anyway, this crap is so much a part of my daily life that I really think there's something wrong with me that attracts it. And I don't want to sound like I don't like elderly people, because there are so many who are precious, but more often than not, my experiences like this are with older women. I think they see us as little kids who need to be set straight. Ugh.

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

I'm cracking up imagining that neighbor! THE NERVE.

Tami · 5 months ago

Oh, I could write a book on her, except people would think I've made this crap up. In the last month, I've been bitched at for PETTING HER DOG through the fence because that will make him "not protect her," and for allowing my girls to write on MY driveway and MY fence and the road in front of MY house with sidewalk chalk, because that will teach her visiting grandchild "bad things." She is so old and out of it that she thought it was paint. Not that it was her business if it was.

Sorry. I'll shut now. This post is making me have flashbacks of the last TEN years I've spent trying to hide from her wrath/going off on her after I've reached yet another breaking point.

Tawnia · 5 months ago

You are not confrontational, you are a crazy magnet :) I am too. If there is a nutball in a fifty mile radius, he will seek me out, and the insanity will begin. When you see crazy coming, turn and run! I always say this to my mom when she gets nuts, and I hope in the future you will be able to use it, "Put your crazy away!"
mommyspaceblog.blogspot.com

mountainmomma18 · 5 months ago

i would have totally stuck my tongue out, or at least laughed loudly and pretended I was just having fun with my kid. But then I'm a bitch.

Snafuzled · 5 months ago

Heh. That’s funny. Recently I wrote a blog about when my hubs farted in the pool and my daughter totally busted his ‘bubbles’ and screamed his shame for the entire pool to hear. So naturally when I saw mishap, swimming, Y – I thought you had done the same thing and I was going to go and show my hubs how he really isn’t that alone in his shame. But apparently he is and he should continue to be really shamed. That’s funny and I’m gonna go tell him.

BTW – you rule. I would have wimped out and gotten out because I have no self respect and old people scare me.

Kay · 5 months ago

Of course you're not confrontational :)
I'm sure that's the reason all the meanies pick on you, because you give off that "I'm easy" (but not THAT kind of easy) vibe. They assume they can get away with harassing you.
And no, that wasn't sarcasm. That's what I tell myself all the time when those same people seem to find ME.

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

Ha ha. I do think people don't know what they're getting into sometimes when they're being rude to me. And the older I get, the more I stand up for myself. I won't say something just to say it, but if I think their behavior might be impacting others who are afraid to stand up for themselves, that's bully behavior and I feel like I have to say something about it.

cathylwood · 5 months ago

Both my daughters were lifeguards -- you would not believe the stories! This is pretty tame stuff from their point-of-view, but sounds as if you stood up for free swim everywhere! Good job! I found your blog through the Newsweek article and I'm so glad I did. Looking forward to becoming a regular visitor.

jmorgan · 5 months ago

Years ago, when our children were small, we visited in Florida every year with the in-laws. My children were terrorized by blue haired, turkey-neck biddies who had nothing else to do but cackle at my kids for splashing. (really? In a pool?) I am a grandma now (altho I most certainly do NOT have blue hair!) and would rather put a fork in my head than yell at a kid having fun. As adults, my children, btw, have not once re-visited Florida.

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

You just brought back a memory of the time I went swimming at the pool in my grandparents' Florida retirement community as a kid. One of the old guys yelled at me and told me it was "Adult Swim" hours. My grandfather went over and yelled at HIM and they got into a shouting argument and I quietly got out of the pool, hopped on my grandmother's gigantic tricycle and pedaled home as fast as I could!

mochamomma · 5 months ago

The more you write about YOUR confrontations and the more that I have confrontations the more I'm convinced that we will combust if left alone in a social situation.

Let's TOTALLY do that next week? We'll meet at the corner of Bitchy Attitude and Sickly Sweet Smile Street. It's a crossroads. We'll heckle everyone we come in contact with and be the belles of the ball. Looking forward to it, yes?

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

It is a wonder we made it through lunch together without incident.

Can't wait to see you again!

cattywampus_steph · 5 months ago

The older we get, the more fun it gets to mess with people who walk around taking life entirely too seriously, doesn't it? Wish you could have stuck the tongue out at her. LOL!

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

I knew it would make her madder than anything I could have possibly said. Wrong of me, but I'm just being honest!! ;)

suburbanhousewife · 5 months ago

It's your magnetic personality...Twania is right, you're a CRAZY MAGNET!

At the Smithsonian Wed, a woman had the crazy idea that manhandling my son's stroller out of HER way was a fabulous idea instead of walking AROUND. "Hold up Sister...I spent too long trying to get him to sleep...he's your problem if you wake him up." She tried to give me a withering stare, but it didn't work.

"C'mon in...we like CRAZY around here."

suburbanturmoil · 5 months ago

Oh anyone should know better than to mess with a napping child. I'm sure fistfights between adults have resulted over that very thing.

Me! · 5 months ago

Too Funny!

Bitsyparker · 5 months ago

OMG. This is exactly something I needed to read. How appropriate! I would have either dragged her in the pool or moved away and avoided confrontation (and later dragged someone else into the pool.) You are good! Great that you didn't assume you were wrong. Again, yay for this episode. I'm taking a note.

mickeyfanatic · 4 months ago

LOL I think they search me out too. W E I R D! I explain it to my hubby the same way.

amberscrazylife · 4 months ago

What a hateful woman! My hubby says that these kinds of people seem to find me wherever I go...that and fire ants. :)