January 14, 2010

Chuckie Disease

Today I went to Chuckie Cheese with Lil C, and another Mom and daughter. We were having a nice lunch and getting ready to play when an extremely pregnant woman and her young son walked in. I normally wouldn't even take notice, but it was kind of hard not to notice this particular woman (if you could call her that).

From the looks of her face, she seemed to be about 17 or 18 at the most. She was wearing tight stretchy white see-through pants and no underwear. I wasn't looking for it; but it's hard not to notice when someone bends in front of you with their very see-through pants right in your face. To top it off, she was wearing a stretchy white and black tube top which made her look like a deranged snake that had swallowed a basketball. Did I mention it was 40 degrees outside today?

She looked like she was about to give birth any second, but that didn't stop her from dragging her son around like he was a rag doll and screaming at him every two minutes at the very top of her lungs. She struck me as the abusive type, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for the little guy. I shot her dirty looks every time she did it and tried to control my breathing. I wanted to smack her around, especially after she threw her arm high above her head and then slammed it down on his butt. I figured it wouldn't look very good though if I physically assaulted a pregnant woman in Chuckie Cheese. I decided glaring at her and shaking my head disapprovingly would be better for me.

As we walked by her later, I joked with my friend, who happens to be pregnant, that I hoped she wouldn't be wearing a get-up like that the next time I saw her. As she stood there in black sweatpants and a turtle-neck, she couldn't help but laugh.

As we left an hour later, we stood in the parking lot and let the girls say goodbye. It was as my friend pulled out that I saw the crazy tube top girl again. There she stood, at the edge of the parking lot, with her son about two feet from a busy road that serves as the point of entrance for a busy shopping center. She wasn't paying any attention to him. She was too busy watching for her bus and puffing on a cigarette.

A cigarette. . . while pregnant.

I shook my head with disgust and then I started getting angry. Here she is, a woman who obviously has little appreciation for the little life she already brought into this world and there she is smoking a cigarette. I thought back to the video I had seen once, about how babies in utero actually don't get oxygen while their mothers puff away, that the umbilical cord tries to protect the fetus when the mother doesn't give a crap, by lowering the amount of blood allowed in to the baby. This is where the damage takes its toll and why babies of smokers have issues. For most people, it's a choice to smoke or not, but for babies? There is no choice.

Then I started getting really mad, thinking about the fact that my tax dollars are probably helping her to pay for her hideous tube top and that the damage she's doing to her unborn baby will probably be paid for by tax-payers in the form of our insurance premiums and taxes. I thought about all the people I know who have lost babies, those who've tried desperately for months and years to have babies and those who would cherish each little life as I continued to watch her.

I thought about driving over and telling her off. I wanted to tell her what a stupid idiot she is, and tell her to get some anger management classes and some smoking cessation classes as well.

But I didn't. I drove away seething instead.

It's a good thing I went to karate this week and got some frustrations out. It's a really good thing.