Wednesday, July 14, 2010

I'm Not Your Mother!

Last night my husband and I were at TJ Maxx. He sat down near the entrance to the mall and waited while I purchased a belt. Upon meeting up with him he pointed out two TJ Maxx shopping carts sitting in the middle of the entryway, 10 feet away from where the carts belong and he told me he had watched 2 people just leave them right there....

My son and I stopped at Starbucks on our way to Bass Pro Shop/Outdoor World. While my son shopped, I browsed and finished my drink and went off in search of a trash can. I didn't see one so I asked an employee who was standing nearby. He pointed one out behind me. I hadn't seen it because people were standing in front of it. The employee actually thanked me for throwing my cup away! He said that normally they would just find them sitting on shelves throughout the store....

A friend of mine told me about being at the gym and having to ask a man to remove the 50 lb. weights from a machine because they were too heavy for her to move and the dirty look he gave her....

I'm not even going to mention some of the stuff I've seen in public restrooms....

And people have been sticking chewing gum to the undersides of tables since, well, the invention of chewing gum...

What is up with that? Why do we feel that we are not responsible for our stuff? Why do we expect other people to clean up after us?

Now I must confess that I have set my cup or water bottle down and gotten distracted and walked away which is a different story. That's only because I can be a total airhead!

Is this getting worse or is it just me?

When was the last time you were out shopping and knocked something over? Did you pick it up? Did you walk by pretending it wasn't you? When was the last time you picked up something that somebody else knocked over?

I am at a loss as to why this is happening. I can think of some possibilities: apathy, laziness, irresponsibility, a feeling of entitlement to name a few.

So when we are out and about, let's remember that 'the other guy' is not our mother or our maid and take care of our own stuff!

Enjoy the journey...and help clean up the path!

Susan

2 comments:

  1. Actually, a million years ago--okay, maybe, mmmm, well, it must have been about 1981 or so--I was taking a life guarding class with a guy who worked at McDonald's and his primary job was cleaning up the tables after people left (yeah, you're supposed to bus your own tables) and he commented to me something along the lines of, "Apparently there are enough slobs in the world to keep me employed for a long time."

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  2. My first job was at McDonald's (1977-1980)and it was crazy. People would deliberately squash ketchup packets on the floor because it was fun and just walk away and leave it.

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