Yesterday I wrote about our day at Kent Falls.
I took this picture sitting on a little amphitheater type spot where there are steps leading down close to the water.
We lucked out and it was fairly quiet yesterday, but sometimes it can be pretty crowded in this area.
While we were there, a man and woman who were about my age were sitting closer to the falls with someone who appeared to be their mom.
The girls had found a piece of glass in the water, but before I could get Number 7 to give it to me, she chucked it pretty far down the stream that you can’t see to the left of her in this picture.
At the same time, the man who was there started walking out in the water toward the falls to swim in the deeper water, and the girls told him they had found a piece of glass.
He was wearing shoes, and he said something to them, and we couldn’t really hear what he said. But my friend and I both assumed he told them that they shouldn’t be walking barefoot in the water if they had found a piece of glass and that he was silently judging us.
A couple minutes later, the woman with him joined him in the water.
She studied the kids as she walked past them, and my friend and I both assumed she was disapproving of their bare feet as well.
An hour or so after I took this picture, we packed up our stuff and walked toward the parking lot.
We all made a quick pit stop at the portapotty in the parking lot before we headed home, and while Number 7 and her friend were in there, the woman from the waterfalls stopped and she said,
“My brother and I first started coming up here when we were about your girls’ age, and now, forty years later, we are still doing the same thing. You’re giving your girls some great memories. Maybe in forty years, they’ll still come here to swim.”
My friend and I had both told ourselves the same story.
They think we are shitty moms.
Meanwhile, in actuality, they were looking at the girls and being reminded of the great times they had when they were kids!
Next time you think someone else is judging you, remember this story.
Cause there’s a real good chance the one you are telling yourself is not even close to what is actually going on.
Please keep voting!
I need to remember this. I often assume people are judging, mostly because I walk around with 7 kids and sometimes they ARE. I was in the grocery store the other day, and my kids were behaving just fine (I mean it, I have high standards for shopping behavior). We passed by a woman and she said, still in earshot, to her companion:
“I forgot that school’s out. I don’t like kids.”
I replied, loud enough for her to hear, “I bet the feeling is mutual.” It wasn’t a great moment for me, but seriously!? What if she had said she hated white people? Would that have been ok? Why is it ok to discriminate against WHAT WE ALL WERE AT ONE POINT IN LIFE?
A lot of people are donkeykongs. It’s just true. We live in a world full of selfish people who can’t be bothered. Thing is, this was an elderly woman. I hope when she’s too old to wipe her own butt, a former child loves her enough to do it for her.