How Rude

I have lots of pet peeves.  Well, at least more than the average person.  I seem to have encountered a large portion of them today because I am supposed to be working on website content for my freelance job, but I am still fuming from the various levels of human stupidity that I encountered today and can't focus.  Listing ALL of my pet peeves would be a virtual impossibility, so lets just list the three that I encountered today in my brief outing since they all fit under one pet peeve category: People who think that the rules don't apply to them.

Before I even got out of my neighborhood, I met my first pair of morons.  The school had called and I had to go get the youngest girl because they were pretty sure that she had pink eye.  There is one road out of my neighborhood and as I was on my way out when I had to stop.  Two minivans stopped side by side with the 2 women laughing and talking to each other with their windows open.  I figured that they'd see me and move along.  Nope.  One of them indicated that I drive around them with a wave of her arm.  Um....where exactly?  Up onto the sidewalk and through someones yard?  It took more than 3 minutes for them to reluctantly move along and the one who drove past me gave me a dirty look.  Like it was my fault that they decided to share their General Foods International Coffee moment in the middle of the road. 

Got to the school, picked up my kid, and still had about 40 minutes to kill before her doctor appointment.  I decided to go ahead and go by the bank to deposit my latest check from freelance work, but with 2 kids in tow we opted for the drive up window.  After all, it was just a simple deposit.  Unfortunately, I am the only one who believes that the drive up window should be just for simple transactions.  I am fairly certain that the person in front of me was applying for a loan.  The plastic cylinder shuttled back and forth between her and the teller at least 7 times.  Each time it went back or forth there were lengthy conversations over the intercom and at one point the woman pulled out a stack of papers and read something to the teller.  If you have to consult paperwork and send the plastic cylinder back and forth over and over, then you should have gone inside.  (Of course, this was the only lane open and by the time I realized that there was a complex negotiation or something going on, there were cars piled up behind me and I couldn't leave).  We barely made it to the doctor's office in time.

Finally at the doctor's office and get signed in and take our seats in the "Sick Child" waiting area.  The kids were watching a movie and I was playing a game on my phone.  There was a mom with her kids also sitting in the sick area and her kids were covered in snot and coughing.  I felt horrible for them because they just looked miserable. And then one of them realized that there was a different movie playing in the "Well Child" waiting area.  She started whining.  Then throwing an all out hissy fit right there in the floor of the doctor's office.  I figured that the mom was getting up to address the child's acting out.  I figured wrong.  (Now, I live in Alabama.  The accent depicted in the next sentence is not an insult, it is exactly how she sounded.)  She said "C'mon then.  Get yore stuff an' let's go on over thar."  And then she took her obviously sick kids into the well area!!  I was appalled.  I went to the sliding glass window to tell the office staff.  They looked at me like I was nuts and then said that they would tell the office manager.  When we were called back they were still there spreading their germs onto everything from the plastic chairs to the Highlights magazines.  I could not believe that the other parents (who were all clutching their children in their laps) didn't say something to the mom or at least to the staff.  I was the only one who complained.  I will be investing in some purse size Lysol spray to douse the area next time we are there since the staff obviously doesn't enforce the quarantined areas. 

In this age of entitlement, no one has any common courtesy anymore.  The idea of treating others the way that you want to be treated may not be dead, but it is certainly on the decline.  To quote a popular Facebook meme: "We have reached a point in our society where everyone has a right but no one has a responsibility."  Seriously.  How rude.