I've lived in Fairfax for 22 years and am a strong advocate for shopping locally. We shop at all of the downtown shops, including Fairfax Variety. I've heard for years that the woman who owns the store is sometimes snippy and clearly has an occasional negative issue with children (somewhat ironic given that her store is known as the "toy store" here in town). Even so, we frequent the store often, buying gifts and other items there.
Today was the first day that I realized that the woman who owns the store, and is often behind the counter, is not just cranky but downright insensitive and perhaps doesn't deserve the business of parents in this town.
I have a 7 year old son with Autism. He is an intelligent, sweet and vivacious child, who often can get overstimulated and appear to be misbehaving. After seeing the Angry Birds Movie at the Fairfax Theater, we decided to go to the Variety store to see if they had any of the new Angry Birds Lego sets. After checking, we realized they didn't have these sets and even though I worked all my usual magic with him to get him out of the store without a meltdown, he gradually got more desperate to buy something. He wasn't completely losing it but was whining about wanting something and after about 2 minutes of him whining loudly about it, I was ushering him out of the store.
During this mini-meltdown (not nearly as bad as they can get...) the woman behind the counter, who was on the phone with what sounded like a friend, snapped at me: "Hey, why don't YOU act like the adult and do something?" Right in the middle of me trying to get him out of the store with as little drama as possible. Thanks, lady. Real helpful. Let me also say THE STORE WAS OTHERWISE EMPTY. The only person we were inconveniencing was HER. On the phone with her friend.
I turned to her and said "My son has Autism, and the last thing I need is attitude from you about it". I surprised myself because I've NEVER snapped at someone about my son's Autism before, but I couldn't believe that in an empty store a whiny child who hadn't damaged anything in any way could have driven her to that kind of reaction.
So, OK, now I had told her the issue with my son and you would think most shop owners at that point would maybe say "Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't know." Or something to that effect. But all she said was "OK." That was it. And went back to talking on the phone, saying how irritating we were being.
Over the many years I've lived here, I've heard a lot of parents mention that this woman had yelled at their kids for minor issues, or had been rude. There is room for all sorts of people in this world, including grumpy shop owners. So, whatever.. we all live in this town together and need to get along. BUT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD... if you own a friggin' TOY STORE, maybe grow a bit of patience and compassion for kids, will you? Particularly for kids that have special needs and their parents that are trying desperately to get through their day with as little drama and as few tears as possible.
Sadly, I guess we'll be buying our Lego and other toys elsewhere. read more
