Please stop...helping me. Please.

This morning, I found myself in the unenviable position of trying to take two sick children to the post office on the morning after a long weekend. I parked the car and began the process of going to each child’s door and wiping each child’s nose before we got out. Then, I got the stroller out and parked it by one of the car doors to start unloading. Just at that moment, both of the people on either side of me came out and wanted to leave the post office – immediately. I could see where this was going, so in an attempt to get out of their way, I just got back in the car and sat for a moment, giving them time to leave. This was my big mistake.

Patron #1 starts to back up and sees my stroller and stops dead. She looks at me from her window and mouths “your stroller!” while giving me a look like I’m an idiot and have forgotten it…as though I was going to leave without it. So I get out of the car and move the stroller onto the sidewalk in front of my car. Then I get back in my car and wait for her car to leave.

Following this, Patron #2 is pulling out and not only pauses once he’s in the middle of the parking lot, but rolls down his window and says to me “Didn’t you forget something?” – pointing to the stroller. “No”, I said. “Actually, I’m just trying to get IN to the post office”. Then he rolled up his window and drove away, thinking I was some crazed stay at home mother.

Of course, once I got in there, I dealt with what you might expect – less than enthusiastic postal workers, down-trodden patrons standing in line and a mail chute completely clogged with mail from the weekend so that even though I used the automated postal machine, I still couldn’t mail my packages. And I topped it off with ugly looks from the people in line when I walked straight to the counter to hand the employee my packages which already had postage – but couldn’t fit in the clogged mail drop.

After this, I decided I had better head home. Probably better to stay within my own four walls rather than risk running into anyone else eager to help me.