• Menu

Dear Stranger… Just Shut Up, Would You?

“You’re too close to the road!” the woman shouted from the passenger’s open window, before speeding away.

I was on the sidewalk with Mark in the stroller, on Queen Street, waiting to cross at the green light.

“Did that just happen?” I asked Feng. He shrugged.

He is more patient than me with strangers’ unwanted advice because unlike me, he is not familiar with the “toddler police.”

I often complain that, as Gail put it, people in Ottawa have no filter. Well, people in Toronto are the same—maybe even worse.

It started on our first night in Toronto. After eating out at the Spaghetti Factory on Esplanade, we went up Yonge Street and hung out at Dundas Square for a while. It was a beautiful warm spring night and Mark was fascinated by the street performers—he just stood there and danced.

“Oh my God, poor kid, how come he isn’t in bed?”

“It’s too late for you to be out, honey!”

Within two minutes of standing in Dundas Square, these are the two comments I heard, from two different people.

Mind you, it was about 10 p.m.—not 5 a.m.—and Mark wasn’t the least sleepy after the long drive from Ottawa to Toronto.

“Why don’t people mind their own fucking business?” I asked Feng. “They are making me feel bad!”

When Mark started chasing after pigeons on Dundas Square, we had “helpful” people pointing out he was going to fall because he was running too fast. Yeah, I know. Mark runs, trips and falls. And guess what? He gets up right away. That’s what kids do.

One evening, we stopped at Christie Pits Park on Bloor Street, in Koreatown. Feng and I sat on the grass as Mark ran around us. There had been some kind of gathering in the park and people were packing up. Mark was watching them folding tents and carrying boxes.

“Whose child is it? Where is your mother?”

“I’m right here,” I said. I was literally ten metres from Mark, sitting by the stroller.

“Are you watching your child?”

No, I’m immersed in War and Peace and I’m about to take a bath. Of course, I’m watching Mark! I’m not going to hold his hand in a park, am I? Otherwise may as well put him on a leash.

The same happened at Yorkdale Mall, a somewhat upscale shopping mall outside Toronto where we stopped on the way back. It was 11 a.m. and the mall was very quiet. Mark was fascinated by some lights hanging from the ceiling and refused to move.

“Come on, let’s give him five minutes. We can go sit down a bit,” Feng said, pointing at a comfy couch ten metres away.

“Uh uh,” I replied. “In five seconds, someone is going to call the police for a ‘lost child’ or something.”

I hadn’t even finished my sentence when I heard a loud “you should be keeping an eye on your child!” behind me, courtesy of some woman walking by.

“Told you so!”

Seriously, what’s wrong with people? Why can’t they… shut up and let us live?

Child, Running Wild (Call 911!)
Child, Running Wild (Call 911!)
CN Tower
CN Tower
Queen Street
Queen Street
Queen Street
Queen Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Chasing After Pigeons
Chasing After Pigeons
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Eaton Centre
Eaton Centre
Eaton Centre
Eaton Centre
Eaton Centre
Eaton Centre
Waterfront
Waterfront
Waterfront
Waterfront
Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Eaton Centre
Eaton Centre
Eaton Centre
Eaton Centre
Koreatown
Koreatown
Family Portrait
Family Portrait
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Dundas Square
Waterfront
Waterfront
Share this article!
Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

View stories

Leave a Reply to Gail at Large Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

26 comments