A Reminder During The Holidays

This is a friendly reminder to you.

And it’s a friendly reminder to me.

Let me first say that I love the holidays.

I LOVE THEM.

I have been listening to Christmas music since November 1st. That’s how much I love this time of year.

I also live in Connecticut and there’s nothing better than a New England Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This time of year hasn’t always been amazing for me.

Six years ago we were in a very bad financial spot. We had no money for Christmas presents.

Not Your Average Mom readers and my community made sure my kids had a great Christmas.

So I know what it’s like to be completely broke and not know how you will make the holidays special for your kids.

I still loved Christmas back then.

My three-year-old brother died on December 16th when I was 16.

My grandma, who was one of my favorite people in the world, died six years ago, a couple days before Christmas.

So I know what it’s like to experience tremendous loss around the holidays.

I still love Christmas.

There is something so magical about this time of year.

Until you get into the Costco parking lot.

Holy shit, People.

Here is where those reminders I was talking about come in.

I went to Costco this morning to get some stuff for Thanksgiving.

They open at 10 am, so I got there a little bit early. I figured I’d beat the rush.

Apparently all of Connecticut had the same idea because there was already a line backed up at the traffic light to turn into the parking lot.

And when I parked my car, there were people who were already coming out with full shopping carts, so they must have opened a little bit early.

Everyone knows I LOVE Costco.

This is not about Costco or any of its employees. The employees at my local Costco are awesome.

It’s the people who shop there who coulda used a few reminders today.

And I know this isn’t limited to Costco customers. I’m pretty sure you could insert the name of any grocery store into this post.

At 9:59 this morning when I was walking into Costco, I heard a husband yelling at his wife as they unloaded the things from their cart into their car.

I had a list of what I needed and lots of things to do today, so I was in and out of Costco fairly quickly.

At 10:25 as I was pushing my cart back to my car, the parking lot was already filled to capacity.

And I saw people cutting other people off from getting a parking space.

I saw people who couldn’t pause for 5 seconds to let someone pull out of their spot.

I also saw a whole bunch of unreturned carts already, but I’m not even going there today.

Here’s the reminder.

We haven’t even gotten to Thanksgiving yet and people have already lost their patience.

This is the week when we are supposed to be giving thanks and remembering all we have to be grateful for.

So let’s at least set a good example for our kids.

You want to know why your kids are jerks to you and their siblings and their friends sometimes?

Just spend a few minutes observing people in the Costco parking lot.

And then observe your own thoughts and judgments about them.

We so easily forget what this time of year is all about.

It’s not about who can score the best parking space on Black Friday.

Remember that every store, road and parking lot is going to be extra busy for the next five weeks.

There will be no quick trips for you for the next 30 days.

Expect everything to take twice as long as it normally does. Maybe four times as long.

Maybe ten times as long!

Be prepared to park you car very far away.

Or not at all.

Remember that parking lot and traffic and merging karma comes back to you.

Don’t give people the finger in the parking lot.

Or anywhere.

Don’t yell at people.

Maybe they are out of it because their son died a couple days ago.

Maybe they just lost their grandma.

Maybe they have no idea how they are going to get presents for their kids.

Maybe their marriage is so fucked beyond repair they aren’t thinking straight.

Maybe they just got fired from a job or maybe they have a sick pet at home and they have no idea how to tell their kids.

Maybe they simply had a super shitty day.

Maybe they are just real-life Grinches who need some Whoville love sent their way.

Who knows what’s going on with other people.

I mean, you don’t know anything, really.

Except that your kids are watching you.

And they are learning from you.

You can teach them to be the judgmental crankypants who makes it clear that everyone else is an idiot.

Or you can teach them to be kind and understanding and patient.

Because it’s the holidays, dammit.

You can make it the most infuriating time of the year.

Or, you can make it the most wonderful time of the year.

And the person who determines that isn’t the lady ahead of you in line who forgot to get sugar and had to run back to aisle 12 to find it.

It’s you.