Incident at the elevator

Okay, so I'm not always the most patient of people - I'm more patient now than prior to all this happening to me but that's not saying much.

Today my parents and I had to go back to the mall. Yes, we are brave souls. At this particular outdoor mall, the elevator to go between the three floors is sluggish, which is being kind. I'm talking to my parents as we wait for the elevator and we hear the ding. Stepping out is a woman with two children, both girls, and one of them is having a screaming hissy. In the doorway of the elevator. Just enough so that we can't reach around them to stop the doors from closing, and just enough so we can't push past them to get on the elevator. The kid is pissy because she "...wanted to ride the escalator and she wanted to go back on the elevator and do it right"...her words, not mine. I thought that for a little ankle biter she was damn articulate about what she wanted.

We missed the elevator. I was about to have an even bigger pissy hissy fit than the bratty kid. Then, the mother shook her daughter's hand and said while looking at me, "Now look what you did, Alyssia. You made the nice lady in the wheelchair miss her elevator. She needed to take that elevator because she's handicapped and can't ride the escalator like you want to." Dead silence. How do you even begin to react to that kind of stupidity? I know, I know, she was trying to reason with her child. But honestly, did she need to point out TWICE that I'm different than everyone else? Am I being sensitive? Probably, but understandably.

I would have grabbed the screechy kid off of the elevator and taken her to a quiet corner then spanked her butt for being a brat, being rude and disrespectful. That's the way I grew up and I learned my boundaries. I don't ever remember my parents pointing someone out and stating their differences. I would be horrified if some young child came up to me and said, "My mommy says you're handicapped and that's why you're in a wheelchair." I'm sure the first thing that would come out of my mouth would be, "Well, little girl, your mother's an ignorant bitch." Yea, I know, but I'd say it ever so sweetly. Really.

So the mother and daughters walked away. My parents and I waited another few minutes for the slow elevator to return. We didn't talk for awhile. There wasn't anything to say.