Last week we were in a park in a little village. I was sat talking to a friend at a picnic bench. About 20 metres away our 3 children (3,6 and 6) were happily engrossed in a sandpit that had a fence around it (so they were hidden from view a little). After a while a woman said to us, “I’m sorry to disturb your afternoon out with my children’s noise. I do ask them to be quiet, but they don’t always listen.” We said, “That’s fine our three are over there playing.” “Three?” she said. She clearly thought we were sitting in a children’s playground without any children.
Two things struck me as odd. One was that she would think anyone would sit in a children’s playground chatting, when they could so easily be in the beer garden of the excellent pub just up the road (I can assure you I know which I’d rather have been doing). The other was that she seemed to be putting herself down and be over apologetic for something that she had no reason to be sorry for. Her kids weren’t that noisy, in fact I’d barely registered they were there. They certainly weren’t causing a problem and if they were being noisy what better place to be noisy? I think we can try to be too perfect sometimes and can put ourselves down needlessly. Do you ever put yourself down when there’s no real reason you should?
