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Dear angriest stranger I've ever encountered: Thank you for the lesson

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An open letter to the angriest and meanest man I’ve ever encountered in first person. Thank you for helping me teach my son a valuable life lesson by your inexcusable behavior.

Preface: I got into a fender bender last night. Let’s start with that. It was my fault. I was stopped at a stop sign after getting groceries and turned around to look at one of my 8yo twins who had opened a box of donuts in the vehicle and was laughing at the chocolate on his face. When I turned around, I rolled forward, bumping into the car in front of me at about 1mph. Less if possible. Totally minor. One scratch. But nonetheless 100% my fault. I got out of my vehicle and apologized immediately, expecting to exchange information and insurance cards and be done with it. You could have just accepted it, reported the minor damage and moved on. But you didn’t.

So to you, the overweight 60 year old man who felt it appropriate to charge at my vehicle and cuss me out with my 8 year old in the car, I see you. I saw you. And so did the little eyes hysterically crying and panicking in my back seat as you verbally berated his mother in front of him while charging at our vehicle. I hope you can look at yourself tonight and recognize your reprehensible behavior. What you just modeled for my son is the behavior I never want him to know exists in the world.

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You verbally attacked me and used too many four letter words to count calling me a distracted driver, told me I shouldn’t have a license. All the while literally using your body weight to come toward me, arms flailing, while the woman driving your car sat in the driver side with her window up, no doubt embarrassed or fearful. It makes me sad for you sir.

Yes, I was distracted by my son for a second, while stopped, and let my foot off the brake. I admit that completely. That does not make me a distracted driver. That makes me a parent. We all make mistakes.

I teach my children that accidents happen, and as long as you learn from them, there is no reason to get angry over them. Keep your cool and stay calm in the face of unfortunate circumstances, regardless of the actions of other parties involved. You made no such promise.

So yes, sir, I did call my 6’1 bearded, muscle-clad husband who quickly packed up the other 2 kids from home and drove to my defense because you scared and intimidated me and had my son in absolute hysterics asking me why “the meanest grandpa ever is screaming every cuss word in the book” at him. I knew you would back down when you saw my husband. You did. You sat quietly in your car after he arrived.

It takes a lot to get me upset. It takes even more to get me infuriated. But let me tell you right now, if you ever, EVER speak to me or one of my children like that, you will get to see the other side of my mama bear personality.

I am thankful the police arrived when they did to report the accident (I hesitate to even call it an accident, but clearly the 3” scratch on the back of your car was worth the uproar).

We live in a small town. Very small actually. Less than 9k population. The chances of me running into you again at some point are high. I hope before that time comes you can find some sort of peace. Because whatever is going on in your life that would cause you to have that sort of a reaction to a mother and her son in a small suburban grocery store parking lot must be really awful.

So to you, the angriest man I’ve ever encountered… know that I was able to calm my son down after you backed off. And we laughed at your actions. Thank you for helping me teach him a valuable lesson on how to never act regardless of the situation. Find your peace. You need it.

And also, be glad it was Twin B in the car and not Twin A. Braylon would have come at you like a rabid spider monkey.

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