Attack of the Old Lady

Recently I realized that I only have one semester left of just Austin and I at home before he heads off to school and I to a job. So I decided I needed to take better advantage of the time left and instituted Austin and Mom day every Friday.

He gets to pick the activity.

I get to spend time with him away from everything else.

This week he chose McDonald's.

We ate lunch and he headed up the tubes. As he is waving from the window, at the very top of the tube, a little 2 year starts crying at the bottom. I hear him tell his grandma that a boy took his lollipop.

I see the grandma head up the tubes and in a moment of mother's clarity I can see how this is going to play out...and it's not good for Austin.

The boy who took the lollipop is already through the tubes and following the old lady with a smirk.

I get up to stop the lady from talking to Austin, but she doesn't listen.

I start yelling..."Ma'am"

I can see and hear her yelling "Stop" "Get back here" and know she is going for Austin.

At this point I am yelling, "Lady in the polka dot jacket" as loud as I can. As the entire play area is looking at me, I see her grab Austin's arm and try to yank him to stop. I am pretty ticked by this point.

I get her attention and tell her to get her hands off my son. She then proceeds to try and tell me how he took her son's lollipop.

I let her know that I was looking at him the entire time and he was no where near her grandson and the lollipop.

By this point Austin has come down the slide with the lady following. He is in tears and his eyes are the size of saucers. I pick him up and check him out.

She again tries to tell me that he took the lollipop. I get in her face at this point and tell her that he was no where near the scene of the crime and that she had no right to touch my kid.

(Did I mention it was a Dum Dum...a 5 cent sucker...if you're going to get worked up and grab another person's child, at least make it for something that costs a little more...like a blow pop!)

She then says "Well, mistaken identity. But if he didn't do it, why did he run?" with a smile on her face like she was in the right.

I'm thinking, are you kidding me?! My kids running because they're in trouble doesn't even compute in my mind. My kids learn as soon as they can crawl, that if they do something, running only makes it worse. So they don't run when they're in trouble. (That sounds like I beat my kids :) I don't, they just get in bigger trouble! :))

What I say to her is, "You're an adult, he's 5 and leery of any strangers, so of course he is going to run...Plus he's in a play tube at McDonald's."

At this point the other people in the area are flabbergasted that she would grab another kid and say so.

Her daughter walks in from getting the food and starts telling me how she wouldn't hurt anyone...Yeah, well she just hurt my kid, so I have a hard time believing you!

I end up leaving while letting it be known to all that I would not stay and let my child play while someone like her was there.

Austin was extremely upset...which means we probably won't be going to McD's again for a while.

This isn't my first run in with an old lady and her being rude in the last week. Unfortunately I had one call me bad name in front of my child because I had the audacity to honk at her when she took 10 minutes to get out a parking space. (I wouldn't have waited, except it was the last one).

Am I the only one the old ladies don't like? Have you had a run in with a crazy old lady?