Who ARE these people?

Yesterday, Husband, Ethan and I went into the city to have brunch with Tio JP. It is so nice to get into the car in the 'burbs and step out of it in the city. It's impossible not to notice the change in energy and atmosphere and I'm so glad we're raising Ethan in an area where he has the luxury of those two environments so close together.

But the focus of my post isn't that wistful satisfaction of location, location, location. No, it's the irritated annoyance of people, people, people.

See, after putting our name in at a shee-shee poo poo brunch place and walking around the neighborhood for the 25 minutes worth of wait-time they told us to expect (only to find out 25 minutes later it would be another 25 minutes), we ended up at a cute little dive down the street. We're talking super casual, greasy spoon type joint. Nothing fancy or shee-shee about it, but decent food and good service. We settled in to our table, perused the menu and intended to have a lovely little brunch.

Except the people next to us had some sort of child-related allergy that caused them to CONSTANTLY gawk and glare at our child. They were clearly a Will and Grace couple (read: gay man and his hag), but ugly and without any sense of style whatsoever. He needed some serious grooming before his eyebrows overtook his entire head and she either had a family of four tucked discreetly in her clothes or she needed to drop about 250 pounds. They had been seriously beaten by the ugly stick and were bitter with the world.

But I have no idea why their scorn fell squarely on the innocent likes of my son. I will admit that before having kids I was all to willing to roll my eyes at the noisy toddler at the table next to me, look disapprovingly at the parents of a baby with a case of the screeches and to say, "Ugh. Can you believe that?" to my companion, when some 2 year old chucked the salt shaker to the ground before his mom could wrestle it from his hands.

Ethan was doing none of those things. First of all, it was a loud place, so his normal volume level was barely audible at our own table, nevermind the next table over. He was sitting happily in his highchair, out of the aisle and out of the way, playing with Husband's lemon. There were no melt-downs, no shinanigans, no nothing. And this was without a nap--Husband and I were prepared for the worst and were pleasantly surprised by an almost freakishly well-behaved 22-month old.

So I don't know what their problem was. But I have to tell you, it was constant scowling and whispering. I seriously had flashbacks to English class of my junior year of high school when I foolishly told Melissa Hechavaria that the cool girls were calling her a slut behind her back and then I became the pariah of the entire group. Their icy glares and loud meant-to-be-heard whispers were the bane of my existence for six months until summer vacation.

Fortunately I only had to deal with these people and their passive aggressive nastiness for about 45 minutes, but I have to say, it was everything in me not to pull a "You got a problem?" on their asses and I've only done that once in my life (drunk, at a bar, when some girl was making eyes at my boyfriend; thinking back, I'd have been better off if I'd just let her have him and gotten on with my life, but that's another story).

All three of us tried to figure out what he could have possibly been doing that was so offensive (yes, the haters were noticed by Husband and JP as well; I am not spinning paranoid delusions about people not liking my kid), but we all came up empty. At one point I thought maybe it was because Ethan was eating a French fry, but then I realized the glares were coming from the aforementioned family-sized lady and figured she really wasn't one to judge. Unless of course she was pissed that Ethan can eat french fries and keep his svelte figure (hell, we're all bent out of shape about that). And maybe the guy was steamed that, at 22 months, Ethan was dressed better and had better hair than him. I don't know, but either way, those people had some serious attitude about Ethan.

Anyway, there's no real point to this story, but I felt I had to share. I'm always rambling on about how great Ethan is, but apparently, the sentiment is not universally unanimous. I totally get that the world doesn't revolve around my child and that people are entitled to their opinion. Some people just don't like kids. That's cool. But jeez, people. I don't like Yankees fans, but I don't give them dirty looks while they eat their lunch. Well, maybe I do, a little.