Foisting Childhood Regrets Like a Boss

I spent my whole childhood standing around uncomfortably. Waiting for people to notice. Never asking for what I needed. Just standing. Ostensibly to avoid being a bother. But becoming more bothersome in my silence. Today, when it was my kid’s turn in line, simultaneously all adults got distracted. She froze, triggering the moments I’d been overlooked, the hurt, the years it took to pop out of that inertia and find my voice. I fussed at her. An unfortunate foisting of childhood regrets on a kid that just needed a minute before reasserting herself into the flow of the school day.