Being the polite person I am, I offered a smile and duly moved Harrison and myself from her way. But then, to my great surprise, she took only one small step forward, basically standing in the same warm spot I’d just silently been asked to vacate! I myself stood frozen in horror (like the peas and carrots before us) for a few moments at the audacity of it all. Sure, I’ll move my 8 kg pram, which was holding my 9.5kg son, not to mention the couple of kilos worth of groceries crammed into the hand basket that was balancing precariously atop the pram as I pushed it, just so she could step that extra 5cm along. She then proceeded to ignore my presence, choosing to stand and stare vaguely into the frozen food section while I huffed and puffed my way along to the bread aisle.
But it’s not just the supermarket in which I, in the role of Mum, have encountered strange, un-child friendly behaviour. There unfortunately does exist a breed of people who just make no allowances for parents pushing prams. I remember one occasion months ago when I was visiting friends in the City; it was as if we were lepers, with so many shops only accessible after climbing half a dozen stairs or so. Needless to say we didn’t spend any of our money there! And then there were the crowded street corners. Certainly they weren’t created with mother & child in mind… Why else would my pram and myself barely squeeze on to the sidewalk, squished in with the lunchtime throng that had spilled out to soak up the summer sunshine.
City folk (of which I was formerly one) stride with a sense of purpose – a mere mum and her stroller (the size of a small car!) prove no obstacle. It was if we were playing dodgem cars with them, ducking and weaving our way through the seemingly oblivious masses, making large allowances for them, so that they didn’t have to step out of our way. God forbid…
