Special Snowflake Stories

[MariaE]

My friend thought her 13 month old had started sleeping later in the morning this summer. (Waking up at 8 as opposed to 4 every morning.)

Turns out he was still waking up hungry at 4, but her oldest daughter (11-ish?) heard him before he'd get loud enough for my friend to hear and would get up and make him some hot cereal and feed him down in the kitchen, clean up the dishes, then take him back to bed and rub his back until he went to sleep.

Friend asked her daughter why she never said anything and got the reply "Its OUR special time! There's five of us so BabyBrother and I don't get much time just me and him."

That is the sweetest story!

What a darling, sweet girl.  I bet that her mother is so proud!

Oh yes. She snuck down and snapped some pictures a diffrent night to go into their scrapbooks.

And FTR: Even in the light of day, all of my friend's kids seem like their growing into fine young people. They're the most polite (but sometimes shockingly observant) kids I know.

That is the sweetest story ever! Thanks for sharing it

[gramma dishes]

...   And FTR: Even in the light of day, all of my friend's kids seem like their growing into fine young people. They're the most polite (but sometimes shockingly observant) kids I know.

Maybe your friend should write a parenting book -- in her 'spare' time.   

[Amava]

Those last few stories are about a whole different kind of Special Snowflakes.  Those are the beautiful, original one of a kind perfectly formed crystals that sparkle in the light and brighten the night.

Quoted for truth and beauty.

The world needs more of that kind of snowflakes.
Or maybe, we just need to pay more attention to them, instead of to the negative ones.

[Lady Snowdon]

Back onto stories of the "regular" kind of Special Snowflake - SS roadrulesdonotapplytome-us.

Driving behind someone the other day, and we both got on the same highway exit.  It's a cloverleaf exit, so you have to speed up pretty quickly once you're able to, in order to merge with traffic.  It being winter (snowy and all), people were going slower than normal, so I wasn't terribly surprised when the person in front of me wasn't accelerating very fast to merge onto the highway.  I was not, however, expecting them to slam on their brakes and STOP.  I almost drove into the car before I could stop.  I could see people coming up behind me who wouldn't be prepared to stop.  I honked at them repeatedly, and they finally started accelerating very slowly.  As soon as it was safe, I changed lanes and passed them quickly.  I still have no idea why whoever was driving thought it was okay to stop in the middle of a highway merge, nor do I know why they stopped.  As far as I could tell, there were no impediments to driving safely anywhere. 

[snowfire]

Sounds like the dingbat that we ALMOST ran into some years ago.  He was ahead of us going up the freeway onramp and once he got on the freeway, I guess he decided that he didn't want to be there.  Instead of just continuing on to the next exit and getting off he hits the brakes in the middle of the freeway.  We had to hit our brakes, there was no way to duck to another lane, traffic was too heavy.  We spun out onto the shoulder and our car went up the hillside at the edge of the freeway and then slid back, coming to rest against a light pole.  This was the only thing that kept us from rolling back across four lanes of LA freeway traffic. 

The dingbat didn't even notice, & just went on his merry way.

[LadyClaire]

I see people hit their brakes all the time in the middle of the expressway because they didn't lane over soon enough to get to their exit, so they get to the absolute last stretch of road before they won't be able to merge and slam on their brakes and sit there, blocking traffic, until someone either lets them into the other lane or there's enough of a gap for them to get over.

It's really stupid and dangerous because the expressway is so heavily used by semi trucks and loaded dump trucks, and they do not stop on a dime.

[wheeitsme]

I was at hockey today for my son (4), and the baby started fussing- make him a bottle and he starts to go into lala-land. Now this kid sleeps through *anything*- the parents cheering, the zamboni, the buzzer, ref whistles... But this one Mum sitting right behind me? She was LOUD... and she was yelling about every 10 seconds. No big deal, it's a game not a nursery- if she's excited that's her business.

 Wee man was grumbling and waking up from the air-raid siren level volume behind me, so I quietly stood up rocking him gently and switched over to the other side of my husband and FIL- didn't say anything, look, grumble, glare... My FIL asked why I switched and I just said "Oh, baby seems more comfy here" (he's rather deaf, and I didn't want him repeating something loudly and embarressing someone).

So her loudness wasn't really the SS part IMO- though it was definately a bit OTT for a 4 year olds scrub game, but the rest of the game I could her her *loudly* huffing and grumbling that "why was I trying to get a baby to sleep, how ridiculous was that- he'll never sleep in here, I didn't need to "storm off", she could yell if she wanted too". Then when the game was over she stormed past me hitting me with her coat,  and *glared*. Baby didn't care- he was calmly sleeping through someone ringing a cowbell beside us. Honestly- I don't care if you make noise- but I don't see why he shouldn't sleep if he wants to, and if all it takes is me moving a few feet, then I don't see why I shouldn't.

O/T but I had to laugh at this one. When my eldest son was small, we had L.A. Kings season seats and would often take him to the games. He would fall asleep around the time of the national anthems(s) and be blissfully unaware throughout the game. It got to the point where I could sing "O Canada" as a lullaby at home!

Ducks fan loves your Kings kid.

...congratulations on the cup!

[snowdragon]

Double points to the SS who put his high beams on left them there because I would not do the speed limit on a curvy hilly section of road in Elma, NY today....you know that the fact that the roads are snow covered ice out there didn't matter he need to get to the church ( where he pulled off) that much sooner. Really even going 30 in a 45 zone it got scarey as the wind whipped the snow across the road.Even as experienced as I am I was NOT going faster than I felt safe doing and the high beams only made it worse

For those people, I pull over. I don't care that it's "letting them win"--I want them AWAY from me.

Same here.  I get over as far as I can to let them pass me.  Way less stressful.

In weather like the op described, it is too dangerous to try to pull over. That's why people like the high beam guy are soooooooo annoying!

janedareling is right, there is maybe an inch of unpaved shoulder and with the snow I could not tell where the shoulder started and the road ended....and if I pulled too far over there was a drop off that would have certainly caused great damage to the car, if we were lucky enough to not to roll.  On this road ( and on many others) it would have been far more dangerous to pull off than to just deal with the annoyance.  The safest place to pull off would have been the church - and since he pulled in there, I was not. I did not want a confrontation with him

[siamesecat2965]

I had one yesterday, on my way to work. My store is in a strip mall and the parking is kind of all over the place. When you turn in, you get to a stop sign, then I head to the other end, where my store is.  SS driver was heading to the stop sign, then stopped. As it was an SUV and couldn't see around it, I thought maybe someone in front of him was parking. nope. next thing I know his backup lights come on, but before he could reverse, I honked at him.  He apparently was trying to back up, to then pull into a parking space, but wasn't aware I was behind him! And I wasn't close, but close enough he would have backed right into me.

[Cami]

Back onto stories of the "regular" kind of Special Snowflake - SS roadrulesdonotapplytome-us.

Driving behind someone the other day, and we both got on the same highway exit.  It's a cloverleaf exit, so you have to speed up pretty quickly once you're able to, in order to merge with traffic.  It being winter (snowy and all), people were going slower than normal, so I wasn't terribly surprised when the person in front of me wasn't accelerating very fast to merge onto the highway.  I was not, however, expecting them to slam on their brakes and STOP.  I almost drove into the car before I could stop.  I could see people coming up behind me who wouldn't be prepared to stop.  I honked at them repeatedly, and they finally started accelerating very slowly.  As soon as it was safe, I changed lanes and passed them quickly.  I still have no idea why whoever was driving thought it was okay to stop in the middle of a highway merge, nor do I know why they stopped.  As far as I could tell, there were no impediments to driving safely anywhere.

I was in an accident two weeks ago due to a SS like this. SS stops abruptly and for no apparent reason on an exit ramp. I slam on my brakes, move my car to the side as much as possible and guy behind me, hits me and pushes me into car in front of me. Which then, sped up and off and away, nowhere to be found.   What was especially infuriating was that the cops told me that they weren't going to look too hard for him as I and the driver behind me were 100% at fault, automatically, according to the laws of the state. Yes, the person in front of you can stop for no reason and if you hit them, it's always your fault.  I got a lovely little lecture about MY responsibility to always leave enough room to compensate for someone stopping dead in front of me and someone hitting me in the rear so as to "save" the idiot in front of me. Apparently the idiot in front of me had no responsibilty whatsoever.

[geekette]

And today I was the special snowflake, as I took a better seat in the movie theater than the one allocated onto my ticket, forcing the actual owner to get an usher to ask me to move so that they could have their seat.
...Or at least, I would have been a SS, if not for the fact that the seating arrangement is new (it was best come, best served a in October), and when I bought the ticket I was specifically told that there was no allocated seating. As I was, I was a very confused patron led astray by the SS serving the ticket desk, who I guess couldn't be bothered to get me a seat 'in the back' like I asked and just gave me a random one. 

[jedikaiti]

A movie theater with reserved seating??

[MariaE]

A movie theater with reserved seating??

This is the norm in many countries. In fact, I've never been to a movie theater that didn't have reserved seating (I've never been to the movies in the US, but I have in many European countries as well as New Zealand and Australia).

[Slartibartfast]

The movie theater near us offers a special 21-and-up "VIP seating" for some movies, which means reserved seating and you can buy beer and no kids!  I've never used it, because DH and I rarely want to see the same movies so we don't go much, but it sounds nice.  It's also very prominantly stated when you buy tickets (online or at a computerized kiosk) that it's 21 and up.

Which is why the group of teens at the Hobbit when DH went were so SS about not being allowed to attend that showing.  DH said the manager was trying to offer them seats at the next regular showing instead, but the teens were yelling that they should get their money back and get replacement tickets for free, the theater is being unfair, etc.

[nuit93]

The movie theater near us offers a special 21-and-up "VIP seating" for some movies, which means reserved seating and you can buy beer and no kids!  I've never used it, because DH and I rarely want to see the same movies so we don't go much, but it sounds nice.  It's also very prominantly stated when you buy tickets (online or at a computerized kiosk) that it's 21 and up.

Which is why the group of teens at the Hobbit when DH went were so SS about not being allowed to attend that showing.  DH said the manager was trying to offer them seats at the next regular showing instead, but the teens were yelling that they should get their money back and get replacement tickets for free, the theater is being unfair, etc.

There's a theatre a-ways north of me that is strictly 21+, every time I go there is some family waiting in line who ends up having to be told that they can't bring their kids in--yes, even though they're showing a Pixar flick.