Today I went to a big knitting convention with my mother. We do this every year. It's crowded and hot, which can be a problem, but there are also lots and lots of beautiful, colorful skeins of wool everywhere, and you can touch them. So, sensory-wise, the good and the bad balance out. Mostly it's good, because knitters tend to be a fairly civilized bunch, and most of them don't move too fast. (tending to be middle-aged, overweight women)
Anyway, we were getting ready to leave, and as we were walking towards the exit, we passed a small child in a stroller. The child was about a year old, and was crying unhappily. The father was making it worse by yelling, "Be quiet!"
On the way home, my mom was telling the other people in the car all about this attention-seeking child who loved the sound of his own voice. Then there was this big discussion about how the best thing to do is to ignore the child instead of caving in and giving him the attention he's demanding. I didn't say anything, but that really annoyed me. The room was hot, and there was that noise of hundreds of people talking in a large room. The little kid had probably been sat in his stroller for a long time, too. I personally find that kind of thing hard to handle. I know when I was little, I would get very uncomfortable in situations like that , and sometimes I would cry or whine. I know for a fact that it wasn't to get attention. It was because I was feeling sickish and overwhelmed.
I tried to come to the baby's defense, but no one would hear it. My mother even admitted that she had been experiencing "sensory overload" in there.
Sometimes people make no sense.
28 Feb 2009, 11:16 pm
