Have you met my housekeeper Maria?

On Saturday while Tara and I were at the snooty mall in Natick, we stopped to grab a quick bite at the food court before we bought the rest of our stuff off of the registry from Crate and Barrel. While we were there, we flirted for several minutes with a cute two year old and his disengaged father, who spent most of the time he was supposed to be having lunch with his son talking on the phone making stock trades and talking about basketball.

The little one and I shot glances back and forth as he shoved pieces of meatball and hunks of saucey pizza into his mouth, both of us having a great time. Once his father got off the phone, he was still interested in flirting with me, much to his father's frustration. Finally I turned around to leave them be so that Dad wouldn't get mad at the crazy woman tempting his son to stray from the task at hand.

Once both I and the boy had finished our lunches, I resumed my conversation with them, and he just grinned, silly as can be, back in my direction. His father commented, "Oh he's such a flirt! But I know why he really likes you -- you look just like his nanny!"

Blink. Blink blink.

I turned around and told Tara we needed to leave and she asked why I was so pissed. Clearly she had not heard what he said.

While I understand that he really didn't mean anything by it, what it did accomplish was knocking me down several pegs, and putting me beneath this guy and his son. It's not short of telling a hispanic woman she looks like your housekeeper or the woman who cleans your hotel room, and while it may not be inaccurate the Asians raise the best children, it is insensitive to put it so plainly, and blankly into this Asian's face.