Heinous

Earlier today, we went to the playground at my brother's house.
Took our son and our niece.

As usual, at the park, there are countless of mothers and maids with their children/charges.
So this one father pushing his daughter on the swing sticks out like a sore thumb.
I thought, "How nice of this father to take time off after work (because he was dressed in a striped shirt and slacks) and take his daughter to the playgroud? Not something you see very often. Good for him.

There's this two overweight girls playing at the playground too. Nice girls. Very polite. Always made sure that niece or son was clear from the slide before they came down it (unlike other kids who just power through, almost always semi-knocking niece/son down). Other kids stared. Must be hard to walk in those girls shoes. I felt for them.

Then, there was an opening at the swings, next to the father who was pushing his daughter. Took my son there and sat him next to the girl and her dad. Then, something heinous happened.

The father, attempting to make small talk or break the ice with me, made fun of the two overweight girls, claiming that they would be a nuisance to pry out should they get stuck in the covered slide.

I was so shocked. That was a horrible thing to say. Much less to a stranger, in the presence of your own child. What is he teaching his daughter? That it's ok to make fun of other children? I was so revolted but I also felt defensive. I said that they aren't that big for the slide and that there was more room down the slide than he thought. And that they are good girls.

He didn't try another attempt at small talk. I moved my son from the swings like that man was something so horribly diseased and contagious. Whatever awe or respect I had for that man or would've had, is now gone.

So gone.