Dealing with Confrontation
A woman yelled at me the other day in a play area, for trying to read a few pages of a book (whilst also keeping a close eye on my kids). Be aware readers, apparently this makes you a bad mother.
Squawking that we were inconsiderate, rude, and worst... going UP the slide (insert the ultimate image of horror here). To be fair that's against the rules, but I'd literally just spoken to them about that in relation to being aware of others using the play area.
My kids are crazy loud and excitable but, for all observations, they had still been considerate and careful around the child that this woman was watching.
I would have been welcoming if she had just had a word to me about her concerns. I've instigated those conversations before and had others instigate them with me - never any drama and I will always try to pivot behaviour reasonably when it's clearly triggering.
But nope, she decided the day did not desire diplomacy.
It left a bad taste in my mouth but also provided an interesting juxtaposition with any confrontation I've had in the past where I didn't actively stand up for myself or my family, turned the other cheek in an effort to stay within the good christian girl mould, and/or became consumed with anxiety and couldn't respond.
That's not the case anymore.
I don't think it made Ms Angry very happy though.
I had no qualms calling her on what she was saying and calming stating the facts from my point of view. I considered letting it go but decided no.
Even with her own perception, dealing with her own stuff and even if this was more about her than me - I'm going to make it very clear where my boundaries lie for someone talking shit about me/ my kids.
Turns out all that self development over the last 4 yrs or so grew me a backbone. I had suspected this but it was kinda nice and not nice to be proven right.
I'm not entirely proud of calling after her to 'Have a wonderful day!' as she stormed off because I knew that she would receive it sarcastically. But I did mean it.
Coz she had her concerns and surely this dragged down her vibration and maybe I did look too bitchy to chat to initially as I was nursing a broken toe.
❤
P.S.
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