Today, I received a phone call from a realtor wanting to show the house. I did the usual running around to make the house look presentable. I figured I would just take my children to McDonald's as a treat to them and a way to keep my kitchen clean. By the time I finished cleaning, I was hot and forgot that it is quite cool outside and McDonald's play area is outside. I drove the 13.5 miles to McDonald's with my children quite cranky. Jameson actually fell asleep. When I got there, I ordered, knowing it was an unusual order. The guy keep screwing it up, but I tried to be understanding and patient. I figured he was new and needed a break. I let the children sit at the table directly behind me as I ordered. I turned to see Ian playing with the light hanging just above the table. I rushed over and stopped it from swinging back to hit him in the face. I told him it was a No No and he left it alone...for now anyway. So, as I waited for the order to be corrected and then had to add things to an additional order because he forgot to add them to the original order, I went back and forth to the table. We finally all sat down to eat our lovely dinner of fast food, when Jameson came around to my side of the table and asked me to help him put together his new toy car. As I did, I could see Ian was doing something that he shouldn't be out of the corner of my eye. As I turned to say something to him, the manager of the McDonald's starts yelling at him to stop and then mutters, "That's just what I need, broken glass." I turned to look to see who had so rudely yelled at my autistic two year old, not even bothering to say (as a normal person who is taking to a complete stranger), "No, no sweetie, you can get hurt". She was yelling at him rudely and was more concerned about cleaning up glass than my son's face. This is supposed to be a child friendly restaurant. This is my child, whom I am perfectly able to stop from swinging the dangerous lamp to begin with. It will be a long time until I order at the Sh-sh-sh-shelm McDonald's again.
As I drove him, fuming about the manager that decided to overstep her bounds, I began to think about all the unbelievably rude people in Western Washington. Then I remembered a particularly bad incident at a German McDonald's. Jameson has broken his leg at his second birthday party. A couple of weeks later, I took him on a road trip to Wittenburg. We stopped on the way home to get something to eat and he was so awful that I wanted to scream. The Germans were laughing at me. Then for the finale, I tired to pull him out of the high chair and because of the cast, he was stuck and I mean really stuck. I could not get him out. So the young group of Germans were really laughing at me and making fun of me. I didn't know what to do. Finally a German man (not a part of the group making fun of me) came over to help. His act of kindness drove me to the bathroom (after we rescued Jameson from the chair) to hide my tears.
So I started thinking about the world in general. Are we all just meaner people these days? I realize the economy sucks, middle class Americans are becoming homeless (http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/19/homeless.mom/index.html), we are at war, the elections are far from being inspiring, and so forth, but why are we becoming increasingly callous? When I moved here, I was surprised how rude people were, literally looking down their noses at others. I was used to the Germans being rude because they didn't like Americans (at least some, others were more tolerable). When I visited the East coast, people seemed more friendly at first. Until I encountered fast food employees. My sister-in-law was chastized for asking for Italian bread at Subway, and I was told to get over it when I complained that I had to wait over 10 minutes at the KFC/A&W in Eldersburg for a drink. So, what are we left with in society? People losing their jobs and other people not wanting to work the jobs they have all while the cost of gas and food skyrocket. I am still wondering if the increased rudness is my perception or if it is a true increase and if so why? I know fewer people are going to church and subscribing to religion. ("Love thy neighbor as thyself" goes out the door). Maybe people are more irritable because of the increase in the cost of living. I don't know what it is, but if we all find our selves in deep peril, are we going to reach out to one another, or just shoot each other and take our neighbor's food surplus? Maybe I am just really tired and my focus is just lost.