Yesterday we had a lunch date at McDonald's with the eldest, myself, Grandma, and Grandpa. After we ate our lunch and devoured those delicious fries, there were about 10 minutes left for the eldest to run around outside in the play land.
Already playing outside were two other kids, with their respective guardians sitting at the outdoor benches. We sat on the bench next to one grandma. Shortly after we arrived, the one child left, leaving only my eldest and this granddaughter.
Since it was an outdoor play land, I told the eldest to go ahead & run ahead, intentionally not telling him to take off his shoes for a multitude of reasons.
Eldest ran through the tunnels and down the slide, as he was propelled out of the tube, the Grandma next to us looked at me and said "He has to take off his shoes." My reply "It's okay." She didn't stop (as if she was the McDonald's play land police) "He has to take off his shoes so he doesn't hurt the other kids." I replied something along the lines that it was still okay there is only one other kid in the area and they aren't on top of each other, clearly demonstrating I wasn't going to make him take off his shoes.
At this point, the eldest just melted into my arms, thinking he was in trouble. While I was consoling him, I was telling him it was okay, he can still go. Grandma and Grandpa were encouraging too. This woman decided to pipe in again and try to make things better by telling him to go ahead too. Finally the eldest felt better and continued to play.
This Grandma kept jumping into our conversation which we were not encouraging and by no means was promoting. She also kept telling her Granddaughter from the side-lines what to do, and how to play with my son. The funniest part of observing her behavior is that whenever her granddaughter would tell my eldest to "follow me", or "do this"...the Grandma would pipe up and say "Don't be so bossy!"
It's funny how the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And a lesson for me to be more aware of...the traits I don't want my kids to portray, I best watch that I'm not doing them as well.
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