Who Let The Dogs Out?

Posted by Vulnadia on Nov 30, 2009 at 01:56 PM This morning, we had a WIC recertification appointment at the Health Unit. What fun, I know. I dread these recertification appointments each and every time. They take forever and are not any fun for anyone, staff or my kids included. In fact, they usually scream when they see us coming and with good reason. This morning, I planned on just using our backpack leashes to keep everyone safe and together while going inside and out. I chose this because our stroller cannot make the turn from the door into the hallway to visit the nurse and nutrition ladies, we just get stuck. We get stuck each and every time we try it, so I decided to try and spare everyone the trouble and do something easy. Well, what I didn't count on was a bunch of insensitive people who decided that, because my children had backpack leashes on, they must be dogs. That's right, they looked at my trio and didn't see cute cherubic (yet potentially troublesome) three year olds, oh no. They saw them as a bunch of dogs. How do I know? They weren't quiet about it in the least. They were very VERY vocal about the entire thing. They saw us from a distance, and began to howl and bark at us like a bunch of animals. I kid you not, grown people, about 5 or 6 of them in a group, walked down the walk from the Health Unit into the parking lot, barking and howling at my children. I don't know what they expected, I don't know or really understand why they did it, save for the obvious rabble issues they were having with themselves. But there they were, acting like a bunch of three year olds, barking and howling...at my children. How should one react to that. Can you ignore it? What do you tell your kids? It's hard enough just having to go anywhere as it is without uncaring and insensitive people doing stupid things like this. I didn't have to say a word, as it turns out. Nope, Kian took care of it for me, he shut them up cold and fast. He just looked up at them, smiled and called out, "Ahoy!" When they didn't call back to him, only howled and barked, his smile turned into a frown and he let out a huge, "Arrrgggghhhh!" That shut them up cold. They looked confused, rather dumbfounded, so Kian decided to explain things a bit. He looked up at them and introduced himself with his best most formal greeting. He said quite plainly, "I am the PIrate King!" When they just stared at him, he told them, "It is, it is a glorious thing to be THE Pirate King!" When they obviously showed no recognition of having ever heard of anything remotely related to GIlbert & Sullivan, or even Ted Hamilton's Pirate Movie, Kian turned to them and let out a very nice, very hearty, "ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!" On that note, the howling, barking supposed adults decided to move along finally. Obviously there was nothing to see here! What possesses people to react that way to my kids? I don't understand. I would if my kids were playing puppy or any of us had done something or other to warrant them saying or doing these things, but we didn't. We were only trying to walk from our mommie-van in the parking lot to the Health Unit for our WIC appointment. So why can't people act normal around us? Why can't they see how silly they look?