For most of the world 11:30-1:00 is lunchtime. A time when you rush to the location of restaurant or store with a hot/cold food bar and have a short amount of time to get your food, eat it, and get back to the office. You need to be quick and efficient. But that doesn’t mean you get to be rude and nasty to people who are not moving at your speed or throw away all sense of manners and good behavior.
As it turns out, it’s lunch time for not just you, but everyone else too, including my two kids. Yes, it’s summer and our schedule is pretty open and we are not on an hour “break” but please, PLEASE believe that things will go sideways if we miss that window of feeding a hungry child. Screaming, yelling, crying, you name it, it’s happening and those are just the actions from me! All out tantrums–kicking legs, swinging arms, glaring eyes, rejection of the pre-meal snacks from the bottom of my purse. So technically I do have a limited amount of time like yourselves to get the location, get the food, eat it, and then get back to “my job.” Why don’t we work together so we can both get in and out and on with our day?
It’s okay to still hold the door for us while I’m struggling to use every part of my body to grab the door before it closes while pushing the huge race car cart while my purse is falling off my shoulder and items are spilling out, at the same time “the little one” is taking his shoe off to throw it on the floor.
It’s okay to smile and wave to my kids when they smile, wave and try to talk to you. It will only take a few seconds of your time.
It’s okay to still respect my personal space at the salad bar, or in the checkout. Getting super close to me and my cart will not make me move any faster. It will actually have the opposite effect and I will start to move slower than your granny does.
And in return for all your help, I will try to get to the restaurant or store BEFORE you and be out of your way AND I will try not miss my window of feeding hungry kids.
But just remember SAHMs have to eat lunch too.
