Quick To Judge

Today I was checking out at the grocery store with my two pizzas when the cashier asked me, "Are you the lady with the dog in the car?"  Immediately I had butterflies in my stomach.

"Yes."

My parents are out of town and we're watching Mia.  We had a 3 hour house inspection and dogs aren't allowed to be there.  We had just left our house after I tried to make it look as clean as possible.  I had rolled down the windows and it wasn't too hot yet so I wasn't worried.  But Mia is deathly afraid of being in the car so naturally she yapped.  We had literally walked in to get pizzas and checked out right away.  5 minutes - max.

The cashier continued.  "I'm really sorry but there's a crazy lady out there who saw that you just left a dog in your car and she said she was going to call the cops on you."

I turned around to look out the window and sure enough there was a woman standing outside my van with a cell phone in hand.  I took a deep breath as I walked out, but nothing could have prepared me for how she was going to chew me out.

When I explained that I was only inside for 5 minutes and that my dog was perfectly fine she told me she knew because she was watching me.  Then she kept ranting on about how I would never keep one of my own kids in the car for 5 minutes.  Blah blah blah.  She kept going while I tried to get all 3 kids into their seats and buckled.

When I had heard enough I finally said, "I understand your concern ma'am, thank you," and walked away.

In my head I kept thinking, I should have known that something like this would have happened.  Not that someone was going to call the cops on me the first time I had ever left a dog in my car, but because of all weeks, this was the whopper of the one to choose.

She didn't know that my sweet sweet uncle just died from cancer who was way too young to die.  She didn't know that I have cried basically every day since his death because I'm struggling with the reality of it.  She didn't know that his funeral just so happened to be today and that the only reason why I couldn't fly out to Utah was because my husband is on a business trip in Atlanta.

She didn't know that I was juggling selling and buying two houses.  She didn't know the stress I'm under to get everything done while managing three small kids.  She didn't know that my husband was out of town and that I don't sleep soundly when he's not around so I'm also exhausted.

She didn't know that I have a million concerns on my mind right now and that staying afloat has been about all I can do.

She didn't know that the pizzas were a thank you to my good friend/Relief Society president who so kindly allowed us (plus Mia) to crash at her house during the inspection.  She didn't know that I was actually at the store trying to do something nice for someone else.

Instead, she only saw me as the lady who apparently abuses animals.  It was a lot to take in.

But then, I did the same to her.  The first thing I did when I realized she was a mom was notice that she was wearing a very sheer white shirt with a black bra.  Immediately, I sarcastically handed her the mother of the year award in my head.

But I don't know her.  And she doesn't know me.  Maybe her uncle just died and she's upset because she can't go to his funeral either.  Maybe she's in the process of moving, too.  Maybe she's just trying to save all the animals who were ever left in the car for 5 minutes.  I don't know.  But something I do know is that I rarely know anyone's full story other than my own. 

As much as it hurt to have the cops called on me for the first time in my life (although I still haven't heard from them... hmmm...) I learned my lesson that you just can't judge people.  Ever.