Little old ladies and storeclerks in Rio, this one's for you!

So... even upon arriving back in Rio, I was tsk tsk ed by a couple of old ladies for having the Canadoca in the refrigerator aisle... right. Um, did I mention we saw snow in Canada? Or that we took her on a zodiak boat in Patagonia when she was 4 months old?

Now - I will unleash my secret weapon in shutting these people up. A precious gift from my grandmother:

In Canada, we call this a toque. If you see a kid rocking out this one in the freezer section of a grocery store while being carried in a baby bjorn, chances are you've spotted me. Come say hi! Tell me she's cold, I dare you! ;)

BTW - you may be wondering what it will take for me to not be irritated by these "she's cold" people. Well, put it this way, once I stop seeing much bigger atrocities happening to children in Rio I might agree that people should make ensuring the Canadoca's temperature is stable a priority... these are the same people who turn a blind eye to kids selling stuff on the street, being mistreated, not having enough to eat, living in favelas, not getting adequate education, living on the streets.

Instead, my wish is that they would spend that energy doing something about those kids, please.

Comments

[Rachel]

This post is close to my heart. I can't even tell you how many times little old ladies have stopped me to say that my child should be wearing socks. If it's 70 degrees and sunny, I don't force socks. I got 4 tsks walking to the park yesterday!

[Account Deleted]

You crack me up. Love the toque, never think of leaving home without it during this "chilly" time. You have a really good point too. I think you should print-up some flyers promoting a charity or foundation for children and keep them with you and when someone chimes in with their unwanted/undeserved comments, just hand it out.

[Canarioca]

I can relate!! People pull out their toques and scarves in Rio when it goes down to +15C!! It cracks me up. It is humid, so it feels colder, but do you think there is a market for North Face Gortex???

The funny thing is that in Brazil there are so many people that suffer from 'sinusite' and they are always 'grippado'.

I love to tell Brazilians that they are being wimps when it comes to cold and that they should try -30C.

I agree that they should worry more about the kids less fortunate. That said, kids from the favela have super strong immune systems because they can't afford warm clothes and have adapted to the 'cold'.

[Daily Rio Life]

I will come up with something re: flyers!
Canarioca - I love that it's pretty much the same temperature here and there right now and on FB the status updates of people there are "it's so hot" and here it's "it's so cold"... too funny.