Cheer up, Love!

Today I want to talk about throw-away comments.
I've slipped out a few idiotic ones myself over the years, so I know that they're easy to do and not always meant to offend.
Some are brought about by a lack of sleep, some come from nerves, but the ones to which I refer today are the ones borne of ignorance and arrogance.

A throw away comment I heard the other day that got my heckles up was a man saying, "It's women who are the hypocrites!" This was his pot shot, and his parting pot shot. It was his last attempt at leaving the scene of an argument with some dignity.
He failed.

Now, generally speaking, generalisations are a folly. (I'm allowed that one.)
Some women are hypocrites; it's true. But some aren't. It's the same with men.
I mean, I can think of a person who held the belief, quite strongly, that the perfect race was blonde of hair and blue of eye. Even though he was not in that bracket himself he still saw fit to go ahead and persecute those who were not blonde-haired and blue-eyed. He was not a woman. He was a bit shy in the testicle department, but it takes more than that to be a woman.
Your example of a woman being a hypocrite is in me writing this paragraph.

Now this next one just gets me tongue-tied. It's so, so wrong on so many levels that I just do not know where to start.
Harriet (I believe I have mentioned my adorable baby before) and I were coming back from town yesterday and we passed a chap, who just couldn't keep it buttoned.
He said, "Cheer up!"
Inoffensive, you say? Well, he wasn't talking to me; he was talking to Harriet!
The arrogance! What manner of idiot has the precise blend of ignorance and conceit needed to say, "cheer up" to a four and a half month-old baby?
This is where I flounder and struggle to find the words to explain how this offended me.

Let's see…
1. Harriet was cheerfully chatting and chuckling all the way from town up to the point when she clapped eyes on this knuckle-dragging moron. His logic must have been that if Harriet was frowning at him it must mean she frowned at everything. In that case he must think we all need to cheer up.
The twat.
2. Just how is a baby supposed to take that kind of instruction? Babies tend to take their cues from the visual anyway, so if she had felt inclined to follow his instruction she'd have been more likely to adopt an expression of dim-witted bigotry.
A tall order for one so young.
3. What on Earth makes people say this, anyway?
"Cheer up."
I always feel like swinging for people who say it to me. I know I could just cheer up and then people would stop saying it to me, but I won't be told what to do by ignorant bastards.
I'm happy, Harriet's happy. We're all bloody happy.
If we don't look it, it's your fault.

Well, let's leave that to one side now. Though I will just say that if anyone knows of a quick and easy way to deal with people who expect you to cheer up, even if you're not unhappy, just because they say so, please tell me.

Harriet?
Good of you to ask.
Well, she's coming on leaps and bounds. She's not leaping and bounding yet, that's just a figure of speech. Though you may be surprised to hear that she has started moonwalking this week. She can walk with our help, but every now and then she concentrates too hard. She stares intently at her feet and wills them to move. Problem is they move backwards and she moonwalks. Wacko Jacko would be impressed, but he's not setting a single foot anywhere near her.

She lifts her head for longer spells when she's on her tummy. She rolls herself over too, but it's not entirely on purpose yet. I suppose you'll know the day that she's worked out how to roll over on her own and crawl, because my blogging will come to an abrupt end.
I'll be far too busy chasing Harriet around and putting lotion on her carpet-singed knees.

Oh sweet Jesus Christ, she's soiled herself.
Must go: my eyes are burning.

Thanks for dropping by.