The Kindness Of Strangers

Being a parent is a tough gig, we all know it. Being a lone wolf parent is even tougher. Sometimes, like this weekend, it’s literally just you & them with no other proper adult interaction and trust me, it’s fucking hard work. Little things can make a difference though - the kindness of strangers I guess - and this weekend I’ve had it in abundance.

On Saturday morning, we went to Morrisons. I never do a proper shop in the supermarket normally, I do it online. I forgot to do the online shop though so at 8am on Saturday morning, given we had no milk, no bread and no bacon, we found ourselves in Morrisons. My two are now too big for the trolley seat, so I have to let them roam free and hope they’ll do what I tell them to. They sort of did (mostly) but it was bloody exhausting (especially given I had no voice) and by the time I got to the checkout I was done in. The checkout is the danger zone: they have to keep still, there’s nothing to entertain them and in their eyes, it takes forever. Ten seconds in to me unloading the trolley full of food they were being a pair of little twats and trying to head butt each other. I was attempting to threaten them with my non-existent voice when the security guard strolled over, started chatting to them, played high fives with them, pretended not to understand what their names were and generally entertained them while I packed the shopping up. Mr security guard at #Morrisons Strood you’re a legend. Thank you for helping me keep my Saturday morning sanity.

On Sunday, we went to Trosley Country Park. I was not feeling it. It was cold, I felt like shit and I really just wanted to be inside, cosied up on the sofa. When you’re a lone wolf to a pair of feral loons though, that’s not a choice, so out and about we were. We’d already had a disastrous trip to another park and I was pretty grumpy so I insisted we had lunch in the lovely cafe there first. I asked if anyone needed the toilet first, and both my little charges confidently declared no need for the loo. We ordered, we sat down, and Dais informed me she needed a wee. FFS. I gathered the two of them, grabbed my bag and scanned the area. My eyes fell on an elderly couple who’d ordered just before me. ‘Excuse me,’ I rasped in my weird fucking Marge Simpson voice I currently have going on. ‘My daughter needs the loo, could you listen out for order no 28 and point them in the direction of my table if it comes while we’re gone?’ They happily agreed, and we all skipped off to the loo (which isn’t in the actual cafe, conveniently.) Dais weed, I made Z wee and we went back to the table. The couple cheerfully informed me our food hadn’t arrived and I croaked my thanks at them. We sat down, Z started twatting the table with the wooden sooon bearing our order no, I wrestled it off him, he bellowed a lot at me and I hissed some threats about no more sweeties ever at him. He beamed at me with his great big baby blues and said ‘I need a poo mummy.’  For. Christ’s. Sake. We all got up, grabbed my bag and headed towards the elderly couple. Again. ‘I’m so sorry, we need another toilet trip, do you mind listening out for our order no again?’ I asked, reluctantly. They laughed and once again kindly agreed. We spent a Very Long Time in the toilet while Zachary talked me through his poo ‘It is coming out my bum mummy. It is out my bum mummy. There is another poo coming mummy. It is a ‘normous poo mummy.’ By the time we’d finished in the loo, our food had actually arrived and was waiting for us, thanks to the lovely couple. Experience has taught me that not everyone is as kind and patient as the Trosley Twosome, so thanks to these two gems who made two stressful toilet trips slightly less stressful and saved the food of a tired and grumpy mama.

The last hero of the weekend was this morning - technically Monday morning, but I don’t work Mondays, so still my weekend. Z has developed a weird and pretty disgusting series of spots on his chest, arms and legs. I’ve hoped for a while they would go of their own accord but it’s become apparent they won’t, so off we trotted to the chemist. As we walked in I hissed warnings at the kids about being Very Well Behaved then asked to see the chemist. He came out, saw me with two wild ones and straightaway printed some stickers for them, told them they were special stickers and was generally so lovely to them that they were both entranced by him and did nothing naughty for five whole minutes. It took him just a minute of time but his extra thoughtfulness again made it so much easier for me. Mr pharmacist at Bryant Road Pharmacy, thank you for being so kind to my kids.

When you spend a whole weekend, just you and the kids, these small interactions can make or break you, so thank you to the aforementioned four strangers; your small kindnesses made my weekend.

#thekindnessofstrangers