Sanctimonious Rage Parent

Ever since we discovered we were pregnant, we made a pact not to become those sanctimonious "the world should bend for our precious" type of parents.  They're annoying, and we wanted to be anything but annoying.

If our kids have a meltdown in a restaurant, that's our fault, not the restaurant's and the other patrons shouldn't have to suffer because we're either too oblivious to our kids' screaming, or we haughtily expect everyone else to bask in the glory of our children.

But despite that, I had a Sanctimonious Rage Parent moment this weekend.  I recognized it right after it happened, and I felt a little bad, although I at least restrained myself not to have a meltdown myself.

Since Henry's surgery on Wednesday, he hasn't been able to burn off his usual excess energy by jumping and bouncing, so he's been rather anxious and antsy.  Also, weekends tend to be pretty bad for me, food-wise, because the distractions at home render it difficult to get my usual 5-7 meals in.  So on Sunday, my first meal was around 10:00am and that was a BLT.

(on normal days, I'd have already had two meals by that time and looking for my third)

So we went to a local outdoor mall, both to get Henry some distraction and fresh air, and a small snack for me.  After wandering the loop twice, we headed to California Pizza Kitchen, which had patio seating.  Maybe a small pizza and a beer would be good and not too filling so I can still have dinner.

This CPK has a revolving door, which is of course terrible for anyone who isn't bipedal.  The sign on the regular door read "Please Use Revolving Door."  I ignored it and just opened the stupid door to push Henry's stroller through.  We asked if we could sit outside, and the host boy said that we could leave the stroller behind the host stand.  Given that Henry had been tending to get bored and anxious when sitting in a restaurant highchair lately, we asked that we keep him in his stroller for sake of familiarity for him.

Then the kid said that they don't allow strollers onto the patio.

Lori picked up on my flash of rage, although I kept calm on the exterior.  Disappointed, I said "oh.  Okay, never mind then," and we turned around and left.

As we were walking out to the car, that was when I came to this realization that I had just had my first Sanctimonious Rage Parent moment.  I get that it's not the host kid's fault, and I get that it's probably a safety issue not to allow strollers into the main restaurant.  But that intellectual approach didn't stop my kneejerk reaction of being offended.

And I knew I had no right to be offended; again, safety issues and the world does not revolve around Henry or us.