ARRRRGHHHHH!

No, the title is not a pirate's most common saying, it is a growl of frustration from Kristin.

Last night, I took David with me to the grocery store to quickly grab some things we needed for dinner, and of course, milk. We pulled into the parking lot and noticed a parking space right up front. As it was raining, I was happy to have such a close spot. I pulled up across from the spot and put my blinker on so that other drivers would know I had dibs on that spot. Another driver came speeding around the corner and up the aisle made eye contact with me and then ignored my blinker and turned into MY parking spot! ARRRGHHHHHH!

Don't worry, this does turn into a cute story about David.

Needless to say I was irritated. No, I take it back I was as close to road rage as I could ever get. I flailed my arms, pounded on the horn, gave the other driver dirty looks. Do you think she realized her rudeness and backed out to let me have to spot? No! She got out of her car, looked at me and shrugged her shoulders and headed into the store. I don't think I have felt that angry in quite a while. I had visions of running her down, slashing tires, yelling profanities at her as I walked past in the store(I haven't used profanity since I was in high school). I sat there for a moment and had the sudden thought that there are other parking spaced in the lot. I parked, calmed myself down, and headed into the store.

My next thought was, what is David learning from me about all this? He watched all this happen with a great deal of interest. As I started to cool off, the rain helped quite a bit, I explained to my 3 year old why Mommy got so mad. I told him that there are many ways to handle my anger and that Mommy shouldn't get so mad at other people for something so silly.

As we walked past the woman in the store I didn't even glance her way. David, not knowing that we were walking past the culprit, looked up at me and said, "Mommy, maybe she will say sorry for making you mad. Maybe she'll say sorry." I stopped bent down gave him a hug for giving the other person the benefit of the doubt, which I had not done. David is learning about apologizing when he hurts someone else or even hurts their feelings. When he apologizes we say to him, "I accept your apology." or "I forgive you." He has obviously learned this well based on how he reacted to my virtual road rage. I love that kid!