I placed the carrier on the shopping cart.  I don’t see anything to secure it to the metal cart.  “Hey, am I missing something here?”

“Oh, I keep forgetting you’re not a mommy.”  And she pushes the cart away.  What the hell?  I was asking if there was something to keep your baby safe in the cart as to avoid any unnecessary trauma.

“Don’t worry.  Some day you’ll have a baby of your own, and then you’ll know what to do.”

Grrrr.

***

It started out innocently enough.    Becky is a newer aide to our floor.  She friends me on Facebook.  Then, weeks later she messages me to ask if it would be possible to take her and her baby to the WIC office.  She’s recently moved to the area,and she has no car.  Her usual ride can’t take her.  I’m already playing taxi that day for my brother who was having work done on his car.  And so it began.

She lives about 20 minutes away from me.  Every other week or so I take her to the grocery store and to do a few random errands.  Her boyfriend’s family is kind of crappy, and her own are far, far away.  I feel sorry for her being cooped up at home with no car, so I save up errands that I can do while taking her around.

She’s nice.  She really is, but I can’t stand her.  Other than the fact that we work in the same place, we have nothing in common.  Our personalities clash so that I find it exhausting to spend time with her.   Her baby is adorable, and he comes everywhere with us.  She can’t go five minutes without asking “Isn’t he awesome?”  He is, but I’m running out of ways to say, “Uh huh.” I get that she’s a fairly new mom and finds the whole experience wonderful.  That’s awesome.  Except that she then talks to me as if I’m sitting in a dark corner clutching a broken doll while pining away for my own baby.  And so figuratively pats my head while giving me unsolicited child-rearing advice.  “Kids like this.”  You have one eight-month-old baby.  How exactly does that qualify you as an expert on all kids?

She’s not even a year older than me, but she has this way of talking down to me.  As if my goals are the same as hers.  Yes, Becky.  I also want an unplanned baby with a broke boyfriend.  I then want to have my car repossessed and have to decide between paying for the car or paying my rent.   I want to have to pick up and move in order to decrease my cost of living.  I want to move with my boyfriend to be by his crappy family.

I realize that I sound like an ass, but any time spent with her is absolutely draining.  My brain is screaming the entire time.  She’s constantly ending her statements with “right?” and then actually expecting a response.  And yet…

She doesn’t seem to have any local friends.  She writes to ask if I want to go to this sale or that one.  She just wants the company.  I know that.  She keeps trying to get me to stay at her house when I drop her off.  “Let’s watch this movie” or “Have a glass of wine.”  No matter what we’re doing that day, it always seems to take 5 hours.  That’s my whole afternoon.

I’m crossing my fingers that she gets her car next month.

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