More rudeness

Last year I wrote a bit about finnish rudeness. Well, today, I'm doing it again. 

A couple of days ago we took The Monkey & The Mouse to a big department store in town. They behaved really well all afternoon and we wanted to treat them. We waited patiently for the lift (we had the buggy) and when it arrived the two occupants were obviously slightly confused about which floor they had stopped on. No problem, they figured it out and stayed in the lift but as Monkey stepped into the lift before me, they pushed the button again for the floor they wanted, causing the door to close, bashing Monkey's arm. I managed to put out my hand quickly enough to stop the door but as we all got in, Monkey just burst into tears. It was probably shock as much as pain but she was genuinely distraught (not like her recent "I'm-not-getting-my-own-way" tears!). I actually had to pick her up and she sobbed into my shoulder the whole 5 storey journey. The other occupants appeared to be completely ignorant of the incident. No apology, not even a sympathetic or apologetic look - total ignorance! 

I was flabberghasted! Even if they felt they had not caused in the incident, surely they could still see a tiny, sobbing 5 year old girl... Maybe they weren't parents or grandparents, maybe they were too embarrassed to even acknowledge the presence in a tiny lift of a big noise or maybe they were just inconsiderate, deaf, dumb, blind and/or stupid!!! 

I was just so angry but of course I wasn't going to make a fuss in front of my own kids... I really wanted to ask her to apologise; I should have done that. I didn't even do my speaking-to-the-adult-through-the-child trick "Where does it hurt sweetheart? I'm sure the lady didn't do it on purpose, maybe she'll say sorry". I just had a good rant while waiting to pay for the parking. 

The Monkey suffered no bruises and there's been no mention of it since, so I guess it's just a thing that happened.

grrr. rant over.