Mel, Jo Jo, and I went to our local Kroger store yesterday. I made a quick dash through the store and grabbed only the items on my list (very rare for me). I was in a hurry because I was headed to B's school to eat lunch with her. Once I reached the checkout, I let out a little sigh of frustration. There was only one checkout open (like usual). The U-Scans were open, but I had several items and it always seems to take forever at those things so I went to the only open check out. My sigh wasn't because I was frustrated at the lack of check-outs, it was because of the cashier. Every time I go to her she always makes some comment about the girls and how it would be so nice if I had a boy. Every.Single.Time. One would think that since we live in a small town that she would remember me and remember that she has already told me the same thing several times, but she doesn't. This time I only had two of my three girls, so I thought maybe she wouldn't comment, but she did.
I started placing my items on the conveyor, with Mel's help. She casually says how I have an awesome helper to which makes Mel blush and results in her covering her face and stop helping me. Then the comments start to fly. She looked at Jo Jo who was in the car seat in the shopping cart. She was all bundled up and you could only see her head. She had a blanket draped over her that was pink on one side and brown on the other, but only the brown was showing. The cashier says, "Did you get a boy this time." To which I casually reply, "Nope. Girl." Then she says, "Oh. I see the pink now. I saw the brown and thought it was a boy." Then the real kicker comes. She opens her big mouth and says, "Too bad you didn't have a boy. I always like to see people have a boy and a girl." Wow!! Are you kidding me???? I guess I am too nice of a person, because after listening to this lady say this to me more times than I can count, all I can say in reply is, "As long as they are healthy, I don't care what they are." I think when I said that she was still rambling and she probably didn't even hear me.
My husband and I didn't have any trouble conceiving our three girls, fortunately, but what if we had? What if after several failed attempts, I finally would have gotten pregnant? What if I would have had several miscarriages in between? The list of "what ifs" could go on. Would my response have been different? I hope so. I can't believe this woman would say this to me not knowing what we could have gone through to bring these three beautiful girls into the world!
Next time, I'm not biting my tongue because I feel I need to stick up for those people who are having difficulties bringing children into this world. I feel I need to stick up for our three beautiful, healthy, happy girls!
