I'm almost sorry I wasn't suckier, frankly.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I could have been sucky today to a waitress. I bet not a single one of you would have blamed me for it, too, but I wasn't mainly because I have this rule never to piss off people who are alone with your food. I have another rule to try to not act like a complete bitch in front of my inlaws and my child, and considering I had both parents in laws, three sister in laws, a brother in law, two nieces, my own husband and my daughter at the table, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

So we're eating lunch in an extremely upscale place that my parent in laws eat at pretty much every week. And this waitress is pouring coffee on a tray over my two year old baby's head.

I said, politely but firmly, "You need to pour that somewhere away from my baby."

So she moves, but she's lsaying "Oh, I'm sorry to make you nervous, I would never spill this on her, I have very fast hands. I have children of my own."

And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, "fine, you can send your OWN kids to the fucking burn unit, mine I prefer to spare the pain of skin grafts, thanks. " I mean, what a complete and utter moron. No response except to move was really needed, was it? Really, all I said was a non-committal and non-impressed "Uh-huh." Mainly because she moved and was no longer causing a hazzard to my child, but ? I don't care if she wants to chat, that's not why I'm irritated. Chat away, I'm really a very friendly person, and I'll chat with anyone who wants to, but dont' sit there and try to make excuses about pouring hot coffee over a baby, dumb-dumb! She mentioned it a couple times on subsequent trips to the table, too. I mean, what? She's incapable of having an accident? The fact that she has kids makes it so she's never gonna fumble something? I felt like saying, "Look, if you really want to make me feel better about your stupidity putting my child in danger, just say, 'Sorry about that'." Seriously.

Geeez! You know what? I have the fastest reflexes of anyone I know. My reflexes are so fast I can right a spilled waterglass before much spills and that's no lie. Guess what? Even as fast as I am, I don't handle hot things where they might spill on my kid. Only person has faster hands than me is the fucking Flash, and even HE better not try to pour boiling coffee over my kid's head. Cuz if he did, I'd tell him to step the hell back.

I think I'm less irritated at what was probably an honest lapse in judgement made by a busy person than I am at her lame attempts to excuse her screw up.

[Retail Associate]

I think I'm less irritated at what was probably an honest lapse in judgement made by a busy person than I am at her lame attempts to excuse her screw up.

I did something stupid one time that endangered a friend's child.

Hubby, myself, our 3-yr-old son and our new little german shepherd puppy, Fred, were camping out in the woods with some friends. They had 2 kids, a boy who was 3 and a little girl about 1½. They also had their springer spaniel with them. He was the meanest dog (had bitten every kid in the neighborhood) and that weekend he was constantly stalking/harrassing Fred. They would do nothing to stop it and my husband and I were getting pretty upset.

One afternoon we were sitting around the campfire roasting marshmellows, just enjoying ourselves, when that damn dog attacked our puppy. He had his teeth sunk in and Fred was yelping in pain. I flew out of my lawnchair to try to seperate them and in the process I unknowingly knocked over the lawnchair their little girl was in.

It wasn't until after the dust settled that my husband asked me if I knew that I had knocked her over. I had no idea. I apologized profusely, took Fred with me into the camper and just cried my eyes out.

Even though my apology was heart-felt, it just seemed there were no words I could say to make things right. I felt so awful about it that I didn't even want to go back outside to face them. I just couldn't believe I had done something so careless and stupid...and didn't even know it!



.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

That was an accident you had enough sense to feel bad about. You didn't try to excuse yourself. You did something clutzy, and then had enough class to own it.

At least you didn't sit there and try to make up excuses as to why what you did was okay.

If that had been me, I'd have been pretty irritated with the carelessness of the other couple, too. In fact, I would have been livid.

[Becks]

RK, I wouldn't be happy to see someone pouring coffee over ANYONE'S head, much less a child.

And the waitress would be much better off not doing it in the first place, than offering lame excuses. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

[Boozy]

The risk of the waitress spilling the coffee was very slim. However, a simple risk analysis should also have told her the following:

a) If in the very unlikely event that I do spill, the outcome would be disastrous,

and

b) It is the easiest thing in the world to just move over a few feet.

Apparently elementary logic escapes this woman.

[MadRocketScientist]

I said, politely but firmly, "You need to pour that somewhere away from my baby."

So she moves, but she's lsaying "Oh, I'm sorry to make you nervous, I would never spill this on her, I have very fast hands. I have children of my own."

When someone starts to over apologize, just tell them what I always do.

"Don't be sorry, just don't do it again."

[RecoveringKinkoid]

See, that's just it. She didn't apologize. She just went on and on about how there's no way it was possible that she might have an accident with it.

If she'd have apologized, I would probably have forgotten the incident within an hour of leaving the place.

Saying "Sorry you're nervous, but I won't spill this" is not an apology. It's a dumb statement from an overconfident person. Accidents happen. For her to suggest my fears are unfounded because she quite wrongly thinks she's infallable is ignorant of her to think, much less suggest. I mean, no apology needed, really, but no dumbass comments from her are really needed, either. They didn't help the situation.

[Sparky]

When someone starts to over apologize, just tell them what I always do.

"Don't be sorry, just don't do it again."

For what it's worth, if you said that to me I'd be furious. Why? Because what I'd hear is "I refuse to believe that what you did is an accident." I mean, what's the point of telling me not to do it again? I didn't mean to do it the first time!

But then I'm weird that way.

[IT Grunt]

For what it's worth, if you said that to me I'd be furious. Why? Because what I'd hear is "I refuse to believe that what you did is an accident." I mean, what's the point of telling me not to do it again? I didn't mean to do it the first time!

I gotta agree with you there. If that were said to me, I would read it as 'You are never allowed to make mistakes from this point forward.' Mistakes are going to happen, the best that can be done is to minimize them. If I make a mistake, then I'm going to fix it and be conscious of what I did to bring it about, and try not to repeat it, but that will not guarantee that it will not happen again. Stress has this way of turning off that memory bank with learned lessons.

[GayleShy]

Dang, that woman... I don't see what would be so hard to just stop and move. Some people just can't admit that they are wrong. And that was wrong.

The old saying "pride goes before a fall" comes to my mind. Thank God the fall didn't happen then and there, though.

[mariamousie1]

When I was three, my mom was on the couch with her coffee on the floor, and I was running around playing. You can guess what happened, I knocked over her coffee and burned my foot. I ended up in the hospital for a few days and now I have to be more careful to put sunscreen on that foot because there's less skin on it (although it looks normal). My mom has told me that she still feels guilty about that, because she should have moved the coffee. So your instincts were absolutely correct. Better to be safe than sorry.