So, there we were last night, Pk and I having dinner at our local diner. (After the numbness wore off and I was no longer afraid of biting my lips off.) I was working on a sock as we waited to be served and the waitress (the same waitress that told me my toe up sock was "a cute little bag") came over. She looked at me and said, "Well, how's our little knitting coming along?".
"Our little knitting". Funny how three little words could push my buttons. I would never presume to call someone's pasttime "little" no matter what I privately thought of it. It was not meant to be demeaning but somehow it felt like it. I smiled a closed mouth smile and said "just fine, thank you".
I am not by nature a combatitive, confrontational person but it was all I could do not to stab her with my needles (nice sharp knitpicks dpns). But that might get blood on my knitting and that would not be so good.
Oh, well. There are persons of lesser social skills everywhere and it's really not my duty to school the world. But it might be my pleasure.
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12 comments:
AGH! I would have gone ballistic!! Man, will people ever shut up already? I'm not doing much knitting in public these days (or knitting at all), but I had to convince some elderly woman in Target the other day that my baby is NOT UNDERWEIGHT SHE'S JUST FINE THANK YOU.
Grr.
Urgh ... that would totally have pushed my buttons too. What's WRONG with people these days?
That's when you give them the "**** you" smile and say, "Fine, thanks. And how's your little job going?"
You showed much more restraint than I would have. I am usually pretty easy going but when someone pushes my buttons like that I have tendency to get sarcastic.
Stabbing would be much more effective in getting the message across.
Hrumph. People mean well...and that's the only thing that keeps me from smacking them with my knitting bag.
Yeah, that would've given me the sh*ts too (as we say here!). It's the "our" as well, that makes it so patronising. Now, if she'd said "what is that you are knitting, it is so little", that would have been entirely different. Sigh.
Oh well put - not your duty, but your pleasure. I like that.
She might as well have patted you on the head!
Ouch! You were amazingly calm. I suspect I might have asked how "our little diet" or "our little hairstyle experiment" or "our little job" was going, depending on which was more appropriate in response.
I tend to patronize back by explaining how use of the word, "little" is diminishing and offensive, and since I know she surely didn't mean to offend me, I thought I might just caution her about word choice so she could avoid annoying somone less understanding. I might even throw in, "When you get to be my age, dear, . . ."
"Our little knitting"?
About as well as our little tip, dear!
I'm usually speechless at the time, too, but I'm great at those French "wit of the staircase" responses that you think of oh-too-late.
You showed an amazing amount of self restraint!
Urg... I have a sweatshirt that says "Go ahead, make fun of my knitting. I'm the one with the pointy sticks!" It's made for those exact moments!!!!
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