Mean Tank Girl
Yesterday I was in line at Kohl’s. When I say line I mean the kind that snakes back to the shoe department and if you are lucky you can hear the raspy voice of an exhausted cashier saying “I’ll take who’s next!”.
Directly in front of me was a young girl in her mid-twenties holding a couple of tank tops. I guess I am showing my age because now they are just called tanks.
A few moments later we were approached by an elderly woman that asked us both very sweetly if she could go ahead of us. She only had to show the cashier that she had exchanged her sheets for a different color. She explained that she needed to pick up her grandson from practice and was running late.
This young girl shot her a nasty look and gave her a very emphatic NO.
I let the lady in front of me and struck up a conversation. She was a lovely woman and was in a situation that we have all been in before. She was trying to fit one more thing into a hectic day before she picked up her grandson.
I wondered as I stood in line behind the young girl what her mother would think of her behavior. Was she just self absorbed or had she been raised to be rude? Was there a bare chested person somewhere waiting on that tank making her purchase some kind of emergency that justified being so unkind?
I was so thankful at that moment that I have always tried to teach my children to be kind. I raised them to believe that nice matters because it does. I went from frustration with her behavior to feeling sorry for her. She has so much to learn and she is all ready way behind on the basics.
Comments
I’m raising my kids that way, too. Here’s hoping that this girl learns it somewhere else as she didn’t learn it from her parents.
I agree that we all should be kind whenever we can. But isn’t it possible that the lady who wanted to cut in line was out of line- just a bit?
After all, isn’t Tank Girl’s time just as vaulable – even if she doesn’t have a “good” reason like picking up a child from practice?