Thursday, May 1, 2008

You know when you feel like you should say something but you don't?

I had one of those experiences today..... I was going about my normal routine; Dan leaves for work, I head off to the pool, and then come home after a couple hours, grab lunch, let lunch digest and then take off to the gym! But the gym is where my pretty relaxing day came to a hault. After about 30 minutes of being in the gym with the normal 5:30 work out crew this Dad comes in with his beautiful blond hair brown eyed little daughters, ages were probably like 2 1/2 and 4. They were just the sweetest looking little girls, the youngest one kept waving to me and smiling while i was working out. But anyways when i see them come in my first though was aw the Dads bringing his daughters to hang out in the gym with him. The Dad was real stern looking and wouldn't crack a smile to save the life of him but at this point I'm still thinking how sweet hes probably giving his wife a break. But then I see him keep beckoning his daughters to come and sit on the ground right next to whatever machine he was at. They would try to stand and he would grab them by the arm and he would pull them back down to the ground. Thoughts going threw my head at this point were "there just little how do expect them just to sit there and not move, why the heck would you bring them here with out anything to occupy them with if you aren't going to let them get up and entertain themselves, and last thought relax" . Then the dad gets on the treadmill, by the way during this I'm working out on the elliptical using my "people watching talent" and just observing, and he tells the girls to sit on the ground in front of the treadmill so he can watch them. By the way the gym is like 20 ft by 20 and its surrounded by mirrors and you have to use a key to get out and I was the only other person in the gym so in my eyes they were okay not sitting directly in front of him. The oldest girl sits down, she accidentally sits on top of the cord attached to the dads treadmill which in return turns the thing off. The dad glares down at the little girl, as if she knew what she did and repeatedly says fix it as he presses his lips together. The little girl keeps raising her shoulders with nervous look on her face like i dunno what i did. At this point i get this sick feeling in my stomach and then after about a minute and a half of the dad repeating himself he gets off the treadmill and walks in front of it and first takes hold of the youngest ones hair and yanks on it and then does the same to the oldest, and then plugs the thing back in and restarts his work out. I felt angry as I watched this man treat his daughters in such a way. I wanted to stand up for the little girls and tell him that how he was treating them was not okay. I was disgusted and as i left the gym I thought if this is how he treats them in public whats going on at home. I really regret not saying anything, not putting that man in his place.

Usually my blogs are light hearted so I apologize for the quick change up but I just felt like i needed to blog about this. Cause i am sure we have all had those moments when you feel like you should have said something but you don't...

And on top of that! Only one bunny was out today! So hopefully tommorow I can catch a few more and get better pictures to blog!

3 comments:

linnie said...

I have had those same experiences. It is hard to say something when you are in the situation where its just you and him and his children. In a more public place it would be a lot easier to let out a "heh" or "ooo" or "ugh" to let him know that he is out of line.
Love your tender heart, Kristi. I know you would have wanted to pipe up with something. It is a good lesson for me to be prepare myself for when I come up wth a similiar situation.

Jodi said...

So sad! I would have done the same thing as you. If he treats his own kids like that who knows what he might have done to you. It got me thinking what I could potentially do in a situation like that. I started thinking if I had spare time, maybe I could offer to entertain them for him for a 1/2 hour or so while he works out. Then again that might be awkward especially like Mom said because it was only the two of you in the room. You obviously don't want him to think you're interested in him... Tough call. Hopefully you don't run into him again!!

Nice life style though, girl. Live that up!! You will probably never have that kind of free time again! Soak up some sun, get some rest, and work out for me too while you're at it!! Love you!
Jodi

Wendy Pippin said...

what a creep!