How rude!

Does summer time make people more rude? Are we all so hot and crabby that we forget to think about others.

Not that it's been hot here yet. It's rained pretty much non-stop for 2 weeks now, nearly making me forget that we supposedly live in a desert!

Maybe that's the issue. Maybe the rain and lack of sun makes people all mopey and sad which leads to rudeness.

At any rate, last week I had my share of rude.

A sampling if you will.

Wednesday I was at Ikea with all 3 of my small children. Luckily 2 of them were able to go to smalland and play for an hour.

Which means I had the baby with me. And 3 very large items to get. So try, if you will, to picture the following. I have the baby in the stroller which I am pulling behind me with one hand. And a flatbed cart in front of me with a 100 lb dresser on it along with two very large paintings which I am also trying to manoeuvre one-handed. Quite a site, right? And yet not once did somebody who was completely empty handed offer to help me.

Mind you I made it just fine in the end. But still. Not a single offer of help. Although I did receive many judging looks from others as I pushed/pulled my load.

Thursday I took my children to This is the Place Heritage Park park. Before the day was over it started to downpour. We, of course, were still waiting for the train to arrive to take us back to our car when the rain came. One train came and was quite full, meaning we were going to have to wait for the next train to arrive.

No biggie, there was only a handful of us left waiting so I felt we'd surely get on the next train easy. Of course as we waiting several more groups of people arrived to wait for the train. I remained unworried because we were there first so they would let us get on first, or so I thought.

When the next train arrived me and my 3 small children were quite literally trampled as people crowded past us to get on the train before us. My 3 small children who were wet and cold and had already been waiting for 25 minutes to get on a train. And it's not like it was a bunch of inconsiderate teenagers who are notorious for thinking of only themselves. It was tweeners WITH their parents. Yes, the parents where not only accepting this behavior they were actually encouraging it.

I finally got desperate and walked up to the front of the train and asked the tour guide if we could sit in the front with the train driver were it was covered and warm. I thought she'd take one look at my poor wet children and say yes. Instead she said "Let me see if there is anybody else who needs to get on." HELLO!!!!! I NEED TO GET ON! I'M WET AND COLD AND IT'S PAST NAPTIME AND I JUST WANT TO TAKE MY KIDS HOME!

I didn't take no for an answer and soon we were sitting in the cab with the driver where all 4 of us were crowded onto the passenger seat but at least we were dry and warm. AND the driver was a very sweet old man who was the bright spot in the rain for me.

On the way to the car the kids wanted to take a stop at the Brigham Young house. Despite the fact that I just wanted to get in the car and go home I obliged them. On the way back down the very steep old pioneer home stairs I'm walking behind my two older kids, holding the baby when a bunch of older kids come careening around the corner and attempt to run down the stairs. I start seeing images of my small children tumbling down the steep stairs because they were bumped by these older kids so I start blocking the stairs the best I can and try to politely explain to them that my small kids are trying to go down the steep stairs (did I mention they were STEEP) and could they please slow down and wait for them to get to the bottom.

All this time the mother is standing at the top of the stairs watching me try to balance my baby in one arm while trying to keep my other two kids on their own two feet and she does NOTHING. Doesn't call her children back. Doesn't implore them to be careful or polite or considerate of other visitors. Just stands there. I wanted to cry. It was SOOOOO time to go home!

So of course the next day I'm at Lowes and I see a man in the parking lot struggling to load some plywood onto his truck. The issue was not really loading the plywood but rather the fact that each time he turned to put another piece on his truck his flatbed would start to roll away and then he would have to run after it. So guess what I did-I offered to hold the flatbed in place for him while he finished unloading it. And guess what-it only took me about 20 seconds to be polite. And hopefully it made his day. And hopefully it will create a little good karma for me and this week will be filled with a less rude people.

And hopefully more sunshine.