Open Letter to the Mean Old Lady

Dear Mean Old Lady,
   I was having a great day out with the clones but it was nearing nap time and we were headed back towards home. I wanted to run into the bagel place because I knew they had pumpkin bagels now and I am a sucker for them. I found a parking spot right in front of the door and the boys decided to stay in the truck while Pattie and I went in. She was very cute looking at all the "donuts" as she calls them. We even had a conversation about the doggie bagels and that maybe we should buy one for Luke sometime. We paid for our box of bagels and turned to leave. As we neared the door Pattie pointed to the drink station and said she wanted a drink. I had planned a final stop for the day at Starbucks so I said, "Not here sweetie, we're going to get a drink somewhere else."
   That started off a little fit. We were only about 5 feet from the door so I gently pulled her along and once we got outside I squatted down and talked to her to try to get her out of the fit stage. It wasn't working. We were only about 10 feet from the door of the truck so again I slowly pulled her with me. Her feet didn't leave the ground, I didn't yank her or drag her. I didn't yell or talk in a mean voice or do anything wrong.
   When I tried to put her into her carseat, she really got pissed. Then it was seriously time to go! There were people trying to eat at the outside tables and I figured her horror-movie-worthy screaming was disturbing them. Unfortunately the last thing she wanted was to get buckled in so I had to struggle while she kicked and screamed and cried. Then I saw you out of the corner of my eye.
   You were standing in the doorway of the bagel place with your hand on your hip GLARING at me. Why? Were you waiting for me to beat her so you could call the police? Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not a hitter. Were you waiting for me to beat her so you could applaud? Again, sorry. All you served to do was raise my anxiety level to epic proportions as you stared at me even as I backed out and drove away. My head filled with images of you returning inside and saying things about me; how you would tell your friends for weeks about the horrible mother you saw on Sunday. I HAD DONE NOTHING WRONG AND YOU MADE ME FEEL TERRIBLE!
   I was so upset, I couldn't even make it home. I had to pull into an empty parking lot where I proceeded to bawl my eyes out. My sweet boys immediately unbuckled from their seats and threw their arms around me. They may not have understood why, but they knew I was very upset. It's not the sort of thing I like for them to see, so thanks a lot for that too!
   Did I mention that Pattie was still screaming? You know, she has only thrown a fit like this about 4 times in her life, so I'm sorry if I haven't figured out the best way to handle it yet. She can't be talked down, she has to just let it all out. As long as she is safe (like buckled in her carseat) I just talk softly to her until she starts to come down. While we were parked she stopped long enough to hear my own crying. Her fit ended and she wanted to "hold you Mommy" so Clay unbuckled her. She climbed up in my lap and hugged me and said, "I so sorry Mommy. No cry."
   About that time I got a text from Jayme letting me know he was awake so I called and told him the whole story with fresh tears to accompany it. Pattie let me buckle her back in and we made it home. The rest of our day was normal fun for us. Except for the nagging black cloud that you raised in my self confidence as a mother. If only you knew how fragile it was already at that moment, would it have changed your mind? My mind would wander back and I would ask myself if I should expect CPS to show up at my door soon? What were you hoping to accomplish anyway? If I was the type of person to hit my 3 year old do you think your staring would have stopped me? Maybe I wouldn't have done it in front of you, but what about when I got home? If I was enough of a monster to hit a baby, surely I would have taken it out on her that you had embarrassed me and tried to shame me like that?
   I will, of course, never know what you were thinking or what you did after we drove away. And you will never know how awful YOU made me feel for trying my best to remove my child from the establishment so as not to bother anyone.