Waiting at a particularly busy junction to cross on foot with pram and 4y/o on scooter while doing the school run this morning, I clocked a gentleman sat indicating in his car, waiting to turn onto our road.

As I anxiously watched the traffic, head darting from side to side while I tried to keep all the busy moving cars in sight, I noticed the lovely man was indicating for me to cross – he would wait.  Unfortunately I couldn’t, because as anyone will know, one car waiting does not mean all cars waiting and I knew trusting that the other drivers would be as courteous and attempting to cross was certain death for us all.

I therefore motioned for lovely man to go ahead and turn, but he insisted on waiting, visibly annoyed I was not availing myself of his kindness.  I signalled emphatically for him to turn, which with a disgusted shake of his head he did.  I then patiently waited for a big enough gap in all the traffic and herded my little darlings across.

But I felt bad.  Really bad for the man as he was now grumpy and no doubt muttering about not trying to do the nice thing for ungrateful mothers.  I really wanted to thank him and explain so he wouldn’t be cross.  But of course I couldn’t then.  So Im doing it now, to make myself feel a little better.  And you never know, he may read this.
Thank you lovely man.  Thank you for your courteousness and Im sorry we made you grumpy by not crossing while you waited.  But we really appreciated your courteousness anyway.